Sep 6, 2008 12:15 am US/Eastern
Networks Join Together To Stand Up To Cancer
(WBZ)
CBS, NBC and ABC teamed up Friday night for a unique telethon called "Stand Up To Cancer."
The hour-long show, simulcast on all three networks, featured stars and celebrities raising money for cancer research.
The broadcast had special meaning at the Wellness Community in Newton, a place for people who've been diagnosed with cancer.
It's a place people come to find a friend, a helping hand, a calming voice.
"You can't live in this world and not see cancer," said Dr. Harriet Berman, a clinical psychologist who helps people recently diagnosed to cope, to fight, to survive.
"Everybody's cancer is different," Berman said, "and everybody's story is different. The only story you can focus on is your own."
Berman knows what she's talking about. Ten years ago, her doctor called and told her she had breast cancer..
"From that second I picked up the phone until he said that, my life just did a 180," she recalled. "It was a different life."
And it has changed. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation saved her.
Now a survivor, Berman still works as a psychologist. Only she gave up her practice to help others fighting this insidious disease.
Money from tonight's simulcast will fuel the fight for a cancer cure. It's an effort that gives hope to survivors like Harriet Berman.
"There is a lot about cancer that the world doesn't understand," she said. "We've been in this war on cancer for 30-some-odd years, and we are not where we should be.
"So from that perspective alone, the amount of money that's being raised for research through this effort, and the push for collaboration in research that's part of this effort, which is key, is so critical at this point in time."
The hope is, with that cooperative effort, researchers will produce a cure for cancer just that much faster.
You can make a donation to Stand Up to Cancer here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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