This year, Femcat is running to help beat cancer
once and for all, and
you can help.
As many of you are aware, the Eric Overton, the
lead photographer and a major driving force behind the Cougars and Kittens project, was diagnosed
with Stage III cancer in late summer of 2002. Prior to his diagnosis, he was an avid marathon runner; and
he held the record for the city of Austin, Texas for the largest number of "Distance Challenges"
(a series of endurance races each Fall and Winter) completed. To a lot of people, he was the Cal Ripken
of the local marathon running scene, since many years and many thousands of miles went by, and he
was always out there running. Thus, his diagnosis - along with a prognosis that included an extremely
low survival rate - came as a shock to everyone, Femcat included. The 2003 and 2004 Cougars and Kittens
calendars only just barely got out the door - having been done while he was on high-dose chemotherapy.
Luckily for him, he got referrals to some of the
finest doctors in the world at the University of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Center. And locally in Austin,
his medical oncologist was a fellow who was on the team that brought Lance Armstrong back from the
dead. That, combined with remarkably good genetics and a history of training for endurance events saw
him through those critical first two years of treatment, when the cancer is most likely to come back. And
as of September 3, 2004, he's been declared clean of the disease.
With that, he's back to running again, this time
to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's "Team in Training" program, which provides
research money and patient support services for blood cancers - and indirectly for all cancers, since drugs
like Gleevec (originally developed to fight Leukemia) have been used effectively on a much wider variety of
diseases.
And Femcat and the Kittens are there to help.
This year's lineup of Kittens includes one young lady who nearly died of childhood Leukemia herself. (She
has in fact gone on to work for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, where she organizes their "Light
the Night" campaign.) And it also includes a pharmacologist who - in the small world department - is now
dispensing chemotherapy drugs at the very same clinic where Eric was treated.
Beyond that, the Cougars
and Kittens Calendar folks are now selling 8x10
photos of your favorite Femcats, with a portion of the sale proceeds to
benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We're making arrangements now to
get them autographed for a small additional fee (also to benefit the Society),
and we've got plans in the works to sell a few posters featuring your favorite
photos from years past in order to raise funds to see Eric through to his next
marathon and wipe out cancer once and for all.
Keep checking back soon, since
soon we'll be posting a downloadable screen saver
featuring favorite Cougars and Kittens photos from this year as well
as from years past, and although that'll be free for your enjoyment, we'll encourage
you if you like it to chip in a few bucks to the cause.
And of course, if you'd like to
jump right in and
make a fully tax-deductible contribution now, you only have to click on this link to help make sure nobody
ever has to have his running (or swimsuit calendar shooting) interrupted by cancer again.
