Top 5 Things to Know About the Testicular Cancer Summit in Denver
It’s coming this Fall 2017! Mark your calendars for October 13-15th in Denver, Colorado for a first of its kind Testicular Cancer Summit, featuring Dr. Lawrence Einhorn as an honorary guest speaker!If you’ve been wondering what’s going on and what this is all about, here are the Top 5 things you need to know about the Testicular Cancer Summit.
It’s coming this Fall 2017! Mark your calendars for October 13-15th in Denver, Colorado for a first of its kind Testicular Cancer Summit, featuring Dr. Lawrence Einhorn as an honorary guest speaker!
If you’ve been wondering what’s going on and what this is all about, here are the Top 5 things you need to know about the Testicular Cancer Summit.
Who’s Running the Show and How Did This Get Started?
The Testicular Cancer Summit is a grassroots and survivor initiated summit, co-founded by testicular cancer survivors Ron Bye, Steve Pake, and Mike Craycraft.
Ron and Steve met by pure chance in Singapore back in 2016, and it had been one of the few times in Ron’s incredible 41 years of surviving testicular cancer that he had met another survivor. Little did both Ron and Steve know at the time, that each had wanted to get a larger scale testicular cancer summit going like this for a while. A “let’s do this” phone call from Ron to Steve at the end of 2016 about getting a Testicular Cancer Summit going for 2017 was all it took. “He had me at hello.” Fellow testicular cancer survivor, Mike Craycraft, was a mutual friend of both who it turned out had similar aspirations of his own, and quickly hopped on board to get things rolling from there.
Ron Bye – Co-Founder, 41 year survivor of testicular cancer, and author of the book, “Memoirs of a 30 Year Cancer Survivor”
Steve Pake – Co-Founder and Chair, 6 year survivor of testicular cancer, author of the award-winning Cancer Blog, Young Adult Cancer Survivorship by Steve Pake at www.stevepake.com. Steve also serves as a Director at the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation
Mike Craycraft, Co-Founder and Committee Member, 10 year survivor of testicular cancer, Founder of the Testicular Cancer Society, and owner of the popular TC-Cancer.com web forum.
Planning a large-scale summit such as this is much more than a one or even a three person job, and so we’re very grateful for all of the support and invaluable contributions from the rest of our planning committee as well, as follows.
Kim Jones, Committee Member and Primary Sponsor/Fiduciary, and Founder of the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation.
Dr Phil Pierorazio, Committee Member and Medical Advisor, Director of the Testis Cancer Division and Assistant Professor of Oncology/Urology at the Johns Hopkins University hospital.
Steve Fillmore, a 2x Testicular Cancer Survivor and motivational speaker, and author of the website www.stevefillmore.com
Scott Joy – Committee Member – 13 year survivor of testicular cancer, and a Senior Livestrong Leader at Livestrong.
What Is Our Mission?
Our mission and purpose is very simple. We all just want to put together the best possible testicular cancer specific summit that we can, for as many people that care to join us, regardless of our various affiliations with different testicular cancer organizations and missions. When it comes down to it, we’re all on the same team of helping to raise awareness about the most common form of cancer in young men, and helping them through their cancer fights and survivorship journeys afterwards. Despite being the most common form of cancer in younger men, testicular cancer is still considered to be a rare cancer, and thus the best way to achieve critical mass for a testicular cancer summit is to combine forces, followings, and resources. We could not be more grateful for the enthusiasm and support received thus far.
Dr. Einhorn Will Be There
Yes, Dr. Einhorn will be there! We are extremely grateful that the man who developed the modern cure for testicular cancer will be in attendance to help kick off this summit. Dr. Einhorn’s landmark work in the 1970’s on the Cisplatin drug and the first “PVB” chemotherapy protocol literally turned testicular cancer from a death sentence to one of the most curable cancers. Dr Einhorn will deliver an hour long presentation about testicular cancer on Friday afternoon, and will then be available for a brief Q&A and meet and greet session afterwards.
“Dr. E”, as he’s commonly known, is an angel. To this day at 75 years of age, he still consults with testicular cancer patients and oncologists all over the world via email, per his own free will and outside of his role at Indiana University, often responding within an hour. Dr. E has touched the lives of millions all over the world not just through his landmark work, but as a public figure that has always made himself accessible to the public on the topic of testicular cancer.
So many of our lives have been touched by Dr. Einhorn, even if we were never actually patients of his! If you’ve ever wanted to meet Dr. Einhorn in person, this Testicular Cancer Summit will be your chance. Dr. Einhorn will only be available for the Testicular Cancer Summit on Friday afternoon, October 13th, so plan your travel accordingly! We’re most grateful that Dr. Einhorn will be attending this first of its kind Testicular Cancer Summit!
It Will Be More Than Just Dr. E
It will be more than Dr. E in attendance. We’re working hard putting together a great list of guest speakers and attendees from both the testicular cancer oncology and urology worlds, and from the testicular cancer advocacy and non-profit arenas, to educate and inspire attendees. Look for announcements throughout the summer leading into the fall summit in Denver. We have nearly a dozen people of significance lined up to speak, deliver keynote addresses, and to lead breakout sessions. Dr. Einhorn is just the start of a steadily growing list. You’re going to be both amazed and impressed! We’ll make it worth your trip to Denver.
This Will Be a Life Changing Event
Testicular Cancer is a small world, but for one weekend in October, we’re going to bring as much of that world as possible under one roof in Denver for a life-changing event and summit.
If you’re involved with testicular cancer advocacy or just want to understand more about this disease, it will be an incredible opportunity to pick the brains and learn from some of the best minds in testicular cancer oncology and urology, that we never seem to have enough time with during office visits. So many of us have a desire to give back in some way, and the Testicular Cancer Summit will also be the perfect opportunity to learn about different testicular cancer centric advocacy and non-profit missions across the world, and to learn about the volunteer opportunities that are available to you, or even what you can do on your own! Last but certainly not least, is networking. The opportunity to network is one of the core features of this summit. It’s the perfect opportunity to finally make those in-person connections with so many that you might have only known online through the Internet and social media for so long – so many of us will finally get those handshakes and hugs we’ve long sought. There’s nothing like being face to face, and for one weekend, we all will be!
Connect, Learn, Network, and Enjoy!
On behalf of the Testicular Cancer Summit Planning Committee, we hope you will join us and look forward to seeing you in Denver, October 13-15th.
Steve Pake
Co-Founder and Chair
Testicular Cancer Summit
TestesSummit.org
A First of its Kind Testicular Cancer Summit, Featuring Dr Lawrence Einhorn
Bringing Survivors and Experts Together for a Weekend of Awareness, Education and Support.
Mark your calendars. October 13, 14 & 15, 2017 at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center will host the first Testicular Cancer Summit. During this weekend long event we will discuss life with cancer and the many lifestyle changes that can help the healing process. Motivational speakers, keynotes on lifestyle, and support systems will all be part of this summit. We hope to see you there.
Mark your calendars for October 13-15 in Denver, Colorado for a first of its kind Testicular Cancer Summit!
As a six year survivor of testicular cancer who's also been involved with non-profit and advocacy work, there's a lot of people that I've met over the years thanks to the Internet and social media that I've not just become friends with, but that I've come to truly love and appreciate as human beings. I've longed to meet so many of these people in person not just to shake hands, but to hug and maybe shed a few tears with, too. I'd wanted to get some sort of national "Testicular Cancer Summit" going for the past few years now, but it's such a daunting task. I didn't even know where to begin, and so I never started, but the desire to do this never left me.
I was on a plane last year heading to the Far East and Singapore for vacation and to visit family, and was thinking about this idea again. How do I make this happen? There were so many people I just longed to meet in person for once. One of those people was Ron Bye, an incredible 40-plus years survivor of testicular cancer, who has been such an inspiration to so many of us. Ron was diagnosed with Stage II testicular cancer in 1975, back when it was still considered to be a death sentence. The life-saving Cisplatin drug that has saved millions of lives to date was still only in clinical trial phase then, but he miraculously survived. Ron had been a hero to me, and what I wouldn't have given to just shake this man's hand one day, and others like him.
Funny things happen in life sometimes. Who do you think just happened to be in Singapore at the same exact time as my family and I, and on his first ever trip to Asia, other than Ron Bye! You can read more about that encounter here, and what an incredible synchronicity it was. Meeting Ron was amazing, along with solidifying our friendship. Personal connections like these matter.
At the end of last year, Ron gave me a call and said he wanted to organize a testicular cancer summit. He had me at hello. We'd never discussed doing this when we'd met in person or online, but little did both of us know, we both longed to do the same thing. Ron mentioned that in over 40 years of surviving testicular cancer, he could count the number of other testicular cancer survivors he'd met on just one hand, and that it was time to change that. Another testicular cancer survivor that Ron had met over the years was Scott Joy, someone I knew very well and who was high up on my list of people I'd longed to meet in person one day also. Scott has been a force for good not just in the testicular cancer community, but for the cancer community as a whole through all of his hard work for the Livestrong Foundation over the years. Scott quickly joined our planning committee, and from there we managed to pick up Kim Jones of the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation as a primary sponsor, survivor Mike Craycraft of the Testicular Cancer Society, survivor and motivational speaker Steve Fillmore, and finally, Dr Phillip Pierorazio, MD, Assistant Professor of Urology and Oncology, and Director of Testis Cancer Division at Brady Urology, Johns Hopkins University. This is a great team of people, and this is going to be an amazing event!
When it comes to making these personal connections real, there's no one in the testicular cancer world that people would love to meet more than Dr. Lawrence Einhorn, and indeed, many of us wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for him. I'm one of them. It was Dr Einhorn's pioneering work with the Cisplatin drug in the 1970's that turned testicular cancer from the death sentence that it had been with a 10% survival rate, to the highly curable cancer that it is today with a 90% overall survival rate! There are hundreds of thousands of testicular cancer survivors who are alive today because of this man's work just in the U.S. alone, and the Cisplatin drug is commonly used to successfully treat other cancers as well. Dr. Einhorn has literally saved millions of lives because of his work. It'd have been tough to ever put together a summit for a disease that almost no one had survived, prior to Dr Einhorn's work. There's no one single person we'd want to honor more.
We reached out to Dr. Einhorn. He'll be there.
Not only will Dr Einhorn be attending this Testicular Cancer Summit in Denver, but he'll be delivering an hour and a half long keynote address and Q&A session on Saturday morning, to formally get the summit rolling. We could not be more grateful.
No matter how testicular cancer has affected your life, and whether you're a direct survivor, a co-survivor or caregiver, or you've lost someone that you love to this disease, you won't want to miss this life-changing event. Never will have have so many testicular cancer survivors and members of this community have been in the same place all at the same time, with so many great minds both from the survivors community and the oncology world all present. This will not just be a great event to finally get those handshakes and hugs from people that you've known for so long, but to also network and learn from the brightest minds in the testicular cancer world. This will be an unforgettable and life-changing event, and we hope that you'll join us!
On behalf of the Testicular Cancer Summit planning committee, we look forward to seeing you in October!
StevePake.com
