On November 18, 2003, Joan’s Legacy awarded its first Joanie Award to Robert Bazell, Chief Health and Science Correspondent for NBC News. This special “Lifetime Achievement” Joanie Award recognized Mr. Bazell’s celebrated 30-year career, during which he has contributed many of the most important stories about women and lung cancer.

In accepting the Joanie Award at a ceremony during the Foundation’s Strolling Supper with Blues and News, Mr. Bazell said:
“The cause for which you are working and we are here tonight is critical. I have been covering science and medicine for a long time now, and I can tell you that lung cancer remains the backwater of medical treatment and medical science. You can count on just barely over one hand the number of drugs that are available to treat lung cancer. People that get lung cancer are treated like pariahs, a terrible situation that persists.

You make a lot here of the fact that Joan Scarangello never smoked a cigarette. That is true for maybe 10-percent of the people who get lung cancer. I know that in your efforts you will not leave behind the other 90-percent who certainly should not be blamed for this horrible disease. The fact that they’re blamed is one of the reasons why there are so few resources for lung cancer compared to other cancers, that get more attention and an enormous number more in per capita research dollars.

This year, 68,000 women will die from lung cancer; 86,000 men will die this year from lung cancer – an astounding toll, bigger than so many other diseases combined.

Joan’s Legacy couldn’t have a better cause, and you couldn’t have an award in the name of a better person. I thank you very much for honoring me.”