Lance Armstrong Foundation

Founded in 1997 by professional cyclist and six time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, The Lance Armstrong Foundation was created to provide cancer patients with information, knowledge, and attitude that are needed to successfully deal with their cancer and its inevitable treatments. It promotes physical well-being as well as emotional support for cancer victims as well as their families and friends. The foundation runs on four core programs that offer resources in areas that they feel are needed to adjust to and deal with cancer when it has entered into your life.

The first of these programs is education. By offering to cancer patients, doctors, and the public information about cancer and the types of treatments available, The Lance Armstrong Foundation allows you to be informed of your choices and options at every level of treatment. As well as offering advise on the medical front, they also concentrate on offering the patient emotional support as well. Cancer Survivorship Centers offer the opportunity to interact with other survivors, hear their stories, and gain much needed strength from their successes. They also offer guidance for long-term physical, as well as psychological, challenges that the cancer patient, and their families, will be faced with.

Advocacy is another of the core programs offered as a tool to the cancer patient. Representing people suffering from cancer at political gatherings and lobby sessions, the foundation encourages the government to take action against cancer by increasing research funding and promoting new scientific options that may lead to further treatment options in the future.

Another one of the four core programs that is in place to offer additional support is the public health program. The Lance Armstrong Foundation funds a variety of public health programs that offer the cancer patient and their families after treatment support and special services that people living with cancer can benefit from.

The ultimate goal of the foundation is to further cancer research. By using the monies that are raised through the fund raising aspects of the foundation, they support and offer financial assistance to doctors and scientist all over the world who are working to develop clinical trials and medications that would advance cancer treatment. They also offer funding to programs whose goals are to improve the lives of cancer patients while undergoing treatments and assist them with the more day-to-day challenges that living with the disease entails.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation hopes to enhance the lives of cancer patients while funding and lobbying for further cancer research and, hopefully one day, a cure. They are there to offer hope and assurance at a time in your life when that is imperative to hold on to. Cancer affects all aspects of daily life. The foundation hopes to shed some light on the challenges that lie ahead and offer guidance and support while facing those challenges. They say knowledge is power and the foundation is there to offer that knowledge and power to those who need it most.