Safeway Launches Annual Prostate Cancer Fundraising and Awareness Campaign
Safeway stores will be raising funds supporting prostate cancer research throughout the month of June. Since 2001, the company and its customers have raised more than $54 million to fund Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) cancer research. Safeway’s annual campaign has played a key role in significantly raising awareness and funding for research—two factors that have helped reduce the prostate cancer mortality rate. In the past twelve years, prostate cancer death rates have fallen from nearly 40,000 annually to 27,000 today. The numbers are noteworthy because they have declined as baby boomers age and become more vulnerable to the disease.
The Safeway Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm, partners with PCF to allocate significant contributions towards accelerating scientific discovery for new treatments and ultimately a cure. Some of the achievements made possible with the support of Safeway and The Safeway Foundation, include the development of innovative medications, vaccines that signal the body’s immune system to fight cancer, and the identification of specific gene fusions that initiate numerous prostate cancers. The identification of these fusions can be used for better diagnostics and treatment decisions. Funds donated by The Safeway Foundation are also driving the development of a promising new therapy that utilizes nanoparticles and non-harmful magnetic waves to heat prostate tumors, making them more responsive to treatments.
According to PCF, 1 in 6 men in the United States are affected by prostate cancer. It is the most common non-skin cancer in America, with the likelihood of being stricken with the disease increasing with age. In fact, about 65 percent of all prostate cancers are diagnosed in men over the age of 65. However, the disease is highly curable through early detection and effective treatment.
The funds raised are donated in the form of research grants to some of the most respected teaching and research hospitals in North America:
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle
- Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
- The University of California, San Francisco
- M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
- The University of British Columbia
