Seena Magowitz Foundation Unveils Cancer Awareness Videos

November 14, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on November 15, 2011

The Seena Magowitz Foundation has released videos in support of November's Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.

The professionally produced video series is designed to raise awareness of the disease. Foundation President and Founder Roger Magowitz is calling upon the home furnishings industry to distribute the videos in effort to educate and inform consumers about pancreatic cancer and what they can do to help.

"Over the past several months we were fortunate to work with a wonderful production team to make four compelling and informative videos available to the public," Magowitz said. "Pancreatic cancer is a silent killer with no effective early detection methods. We hope the videos connect with social media users and educate them about this devastating disease. If they help at least one person understand they are not alone or that there is hope, we know we have accomplished something."

The Seena Magowitz Foundation is best known for its annual celebrity golf classic fundraiser held the first Saturday every year in December. Started as a small charity by executives of the home furnishings industry, the organization has collected more than $3 million since 2003 for pancreatic cancer research. The industry has rallied around the cause, and today, its annual golf event is one of the nation's top fundraisers in pursuit of treatments and a cure for the cancer with the highest mortality rate.

Pancreatic cancer is the most lethal type of cancer, with a mortality rate of 95 percent. Yet, less than 2 percent of the National Cancer Institute's federal research funding is dedicated to pancreatic cancer research. Because spreading the word is just as important as financially supporting research for a cure, the Foundation is calling on the home furnishings industry to join them in raising awareness of the disease by sharing with their social media audiences new informative videos now available for download.

Topics covered in the videos include:
* "Survivors and the Uphill Battle Against Pancreatic Cancer" shares the stories of survivors and the medical researchers working to make a difference in the lives currently at risk.
* "Know the Risk Factors" teaches viewers about the risk factors of developing pancreatic cancer and which are controllable versus uncontrollable.
* "A Patient's Last Days" imparts a greater understanding of what a person who is dying from pancreatic cancer may feel during his or her final days, physically and emotionally.
* "The Best Gift to our Lost Heroes: A Cure" pays tribute to personal heroes who lost their lives to pancreatic cancer, and gives hope for a cure.

The videos are now available for download here and were made possible by sponsor, Donovan's Steakhouse in Phoenix. Tony Subia, a graphic arts professional and partner of Donovan's, volunteered his expertise to help build, maintain and enhance the Foundation's Web presence.

This year's golf event takes place Dec. 2-4 at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. Past participants include senior management from such companies as Sealy, Simmons, Tempur-Pedic, Stearns & Foster and Protect-A-Bed. The event has brought together many industry executives who have lost colleagues or family members to the disease.

Funds raised by the foundation help to advance the cutting-edge research of TGen Foundation, a biomedical research organization focused on moving emerging treatments from the laboratory to clinical applications, to benefit families currently afflicted by the disease. More than 37,000 people in the United States are expected to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, and nearly 33,000 will die.