Anyone Can Get Lung Cancer" Campaign Kicks Off YouTube Video Features 11-year-old Orinda Cancer Survivor
By Jennifer Wake
Orinda resident and lung cancer survivor Gabby Wilson, 11, with Maroon 5 Photo provided
Gabby Wilson has been raising money for lung cancer research since she originally set up a lemonade stand outside her Lafayette home in 2007 to raise money for her ailing aunt.
A lung cancer survivor herself - Wilson was diagnosed just weeks after her lemonade sale at the age of 7 - the now 11-year-old Orinda resident has teamed up with Grammy-award-winning band Maroon 5 and the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (BJALCF) to produce a YouTube video as part of the "Anyone Can Get Lung Cancer" public awareness campaign.
The campaign is designed to spread awareness and raise money to fight the cancer that kills more than 1.3 million worldwide annually and 450 per day in the United States.
Having Wilson participate in the campaign made perfect sense, said her mother Dana Simi. "Gabby has been raising money and awareness for the lung cancer foundation for a few years. She was invited to the concert a few months back and they filmed a public service announcement for YouTube," Simi said. "They are an amazing band!"
For Wilson, the video was a great opportunity to spread the word about this ubiquitous disease that affects so many like her.
"Anyone can get lung cancer," Wilson said. "I didn't even smoke."
"I'm very proud that my 11-year-old is determined that no one else loses a lung to lung cancer," Simi said. "It is the number one cancer killer and the least talked about cancer."
You can watch the "Anyone Can Get Lung Cancer" video on YouTube at http://t.co/nUQsdaOe.
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