Sarcoma Awareness Month is Over, but the Work Does Not End

This July, we joined together as a community for Sarcoma Awareness Month to honor patients and survivors, remember the loved ones we have lost, and raise awareness about sarcoma. We wore yellow, engaged in educational activities, and shared stories about patient journeys and our loved ones. Thousands of members of the sarcoma community joined SFA for our National Virtual Race to Cure Sarcoma to help raise much needed funds for sarcoma research, and 14 million people were reached through the PSAs that were run in cities across the country. The combined efforts of the sarcoma community were effective in educating the world about sarcoma and no doubt lifted the voice of sarcoma patients and survivors.

Our work to create change for the sarcoma community, however, cannot end there. Of course, it is important that we better educate people about sarcoma and the needs of the sarcoma community, but that alone will not cure sarcoma. It is not enough to simply raise awareness – we have to turn awareness into action.

To reiterate a passage from the July newsletter article about Sarcoma Awareness Month,

The month of July is a time for the community to join forces, to unite and raise awareness about the disease. Importantly, it is also a time to unite and work toward more and better treatment options for all sarcoma patients.

Not just this month. Every month.

Although rare means there are fewer voices, it does not mean that collectively our voice is not powerful. It does not mean that we do not have the power and strength as a community to bring about increased awareness, more and better treatment options, leading to a cure for sarcoma.

Let’s use our collective voice and take action.

What can you do?

• Sign up for SFA’s advocacy network. Let’s work together to advocate for research, education and policy issues that are important to the community and will lead to more and better therapies and ultimately a cure.
• Complete the sarcoma survey and give us your ideas on what SFA can do to better support the sarcoma community.
• Join SFA, and other organizations’, education sessions to become an educated advocate, and sign up to participate in research projects and collaborations.
• Follow SFA on social media and share information about sarcoma, patients and actions that are being taken to reach more people, and to lift the voices of sarcoma patients and survivors. Facebook  Twitter  Instagram
• Send in your video, story, or pictures so we can share your voice with the broader community. Let us know what your vision is for the future through SFA’s 20th anniversary campaign. 
• Continue to send letters to the editor and to your representatives on Capitol Hill to raise awareness about sarcoma and the needs of the sarcoma community.

SFA will continue to fund research, provide a platform for research collaborations, educate patients and caregivers to be better advocates for themselves, and educate lawmakers on the role they can play in providing support to the thousands of people living with and dying from sarcoma each year.

These are actions we can take, together, to lead us to the cure in our time. We can’t stop now- we have momentum.