2008 Olympic Champions Join Music Icons for Cancer Awareness Campaign

Olympic champions of the 2008 Summer Games, led by Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, along with Team USA will join with some of the biggest names in music for a national network television special, Frosted Pink with a Twist, in an effort to inspire action, celebrate survivorship and encourage women to become advocates for themselves in the fight against cancer.

Paired with these gymnasts will be icons of song, including Grammy-award winner Carole King, Cyndi Lauper and billboard sensations, Natasha Bedingfield and Jesse McCartney, making for a historical event of sports, entertainment, and health awareness. Also appearing will be hip-hop singer and Dancing with the Stars contestant Mario and Kenny Loggins. Cancer survivor Sharon Osbourne will be accepting the Nationwide® Insurance Woman of Courage award.

Frosted Pink with a Twist is the anchor event of a multi-year television and multimedia campaign that focuses on educating viewers about cancers that primarily affect women. Co-hosted this year by Olympic Gymnastics Champion Shannon Miller and cancer survivor and Olympic Figure Skating Champion Scott Hamilton, the show will highlight current Olympic champions Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Paul Hamm, Shannon Miller, and other stars of the men’s and women’s US Olympic Gymnastics teams.

“Frosted Pink’s message is simple, but necessary: we all need to do our part in the fight against women’s cancer,” said Ms. Miller. “Our hope is that with more information, women will become empowered and become better advocates for their own health.”

Raising awareness is especially significant because research continues to find that despite significant improvements in the diagnostic tools and treatment options for women’s cancers, many women lack the basic information they need to help protect them from a cancer diagnosis. In fact, a recent Woman’s Day magazine survey of nearly 7,000 women found that only 21 percent of respondents believe that they are very knowledgeable about the risk factors associated with cancer even though an overwhelming 90 percent agree that cancer is our nation’s biggest healthcare fear. The majority (51 percent) wished they knew where to find credible and reliable information about cancer, justifying the need for more educational efforts like Frosted Pink with a Twist.

Woman’s Day, the official media partner of Frosted Pink with a Twist, surveyed 6,534 women on womansday.com to gauge their perspectives, hopes and fears of cancers that primarily affect women. While 76 percent of the respondents disagree or were unsure that cancer is a death sentence, the vast majority (63%) do not believe that they will see a cure for cancer in their lifetime. To learn more about the Woman’s Day survey, click here.

And strikingly, even though the American Cancer Society estimates that 1 in 3 women will develop cancer at some point in their lifetime, the majority of respondents (51%) were either unsure or felt it was unlikely that they would get cancer in their lifetime.

“According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), an estimated 260,950 women will be diagnosed in 2008 with a women’s cancer in the United States,” said co-host Scott Hamilton. “And as a cancer survivor, I understand the need to do a better job providing people with the tools they need to become their own health advocates. We need to take every opportunity to educate as we entertain.”

Source: PRNewsWire

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