For
Immediate Release
(New York, NY – May 16, 2007) Newsday staff writer Lauren Terrazzano was awarded the 2007 Joanie Award for excellence in journalism related to lung cancer on May 8th. The award and $5,000 prize are given annually by Joan’s Legacy: The Joan Scarangello Foundation to Conquer Lung Cancer.
Ms. Terrazzano won the Joanie Award for her series in Newsday, “Life with Cancer.” Beginning in October 2006, she reflected on her own experiences as a lung cancer patient and on those of cancer patients overall, as well as the marketing and research environment around lung cancer. Sadly, Ms. Terrazzano passed away on May 15, just a week after receiving the award.
“Lauren helped shine a light on a disease that is taking the lives of tens of thousands of men and women every year, including those who have never smoked. She also highlighted the commonality of the cancer experience, a point too often missed when it comes to lung cancer patients,” said Patrick T. McNeive of ABC News, chairman of the foundation’s Joanie Award Committee. Added Susan Mantel, Joan’s Legacy Executive Director, “Through Lauren’s efforts, the lung cancer community has been represented by a brilliant, honest voice and the broader community has been educated on issues of relevance to us all.”
The “Joanie Award” is part of the ongoing awareness campaign undertaken by Joan’s Legacy, created to honor the memory and mission of its namesake, Joan Scarangello, a TV news producer and writer who appreciated quality reporting and believed that the public needed more information about lung cancer. Joan, a lifelong New Yorker and non-smoker, succumbed to lung cancer in 2001.
The “Joanie Award” selection committee is comprised of producers and managers in various broadcast news organizations, including ABC and NBC News. Their members include Lennert Bourin, Felicia Pantinkin, Libby Rager, Robin Skolnick, Jonathan Wald, and Patrick McNeive. Past winners include ABC’s Dr. Timothy Johnson, NBC’s Robert Bazell, The Wall Street Journal’s senior editorial writer Robert Pollock, and the staff of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360°”.
Joan’s Legacy is committed to fighting lung cancer by funding innovative research and focusing greater attention on the world’s leading cancer killer. Funding $2.4 million in new and cutting-edge research in just four years, Joan’s Legacy is fast becoming recognized as the venture capital source for ground-breaking lung cancer research.
Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the United States, taking more than 160,000 lives each year. Yet lung cancer receives less research funding than any other major cancer, making the work of Joan’s Legacy even more compelling.
For more information about the “Joanie Award,” the Foundation’s research grant program, the annual Strolling Supper fund-raising event in November or lung cancer itself, please visit www.joanslegacy.org.
|
