GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / NEW YORK  – Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) announced a long-term alliance today, with a multi-platform collaborative campaign in support of World Cancer Day on Saturday, February 4, 2012. Issuing a global call to action, both organizations are asking the worldwide online community to raise awareness, fight cancer and take a stand at WorldCancerDay.SU2C.org.

The 2012 World Cancer Day initiative will serve as the first of many ongoing collaborative activities between UICC and Stand Up To Cancer, which will focus on a shared mission to build and strengthen public support for efforts to fight the disease.

One in three cancer deaths can be prevented through altering lifestyle habits, such as eating healthy or exercising regularly. The 2012 World Cancer Day initiative will operate with a mission to collect pledges of individual lifestyle changes, as opposed to strictly monetary funds, and will encourage participants to commit to healthy choices.

“We are all affected by cancer; the disease will claim nearly eight million lives this year.  On World Cancer Day, we can unite people globally to take a stand against it through social media. Pledge to make healthy lifestyle choices that will reduce your own risk, help friends and family members do that, or support a non-profit organization involved in the fight.  Working together, we can end cancer’s reign as a leading cause of death,” said Stand Up To Cancer Co-Founder and ABC News Special Correspondent Katie Couric.

“Stand Up To Cancer was founded on the belief that through collaboration we can eradicate this disease,” said Sung Poblete, Ph.D., R.N., President and CEO of Stand Up To Cancer. “We’re thrilled to launch our alliance with UICC to elevate global awareness of the role healthy lifestyle choices can play in preventing cancer.”

In an effort to rally the entire online community, key elements of the campaign will utilize an array of digital assets, focused around a dedicated 2012 World Cancer Day application on Facebook that allows users to make a personal pledge by donating their Facebook status. A companion campaign on Twitter will support #WorldCancerDay as a trending topic. This online campaign allows people around the world to express their commitment publicly.

The effort will build on last year’s highly successful World Cancer Day activities which saw nearly 67,000 Facebook status donations on February 4, 2011 to generate awareness of cancer’s global burden.

“We echo the World Health Organization’s belief that we can reduce deaths from non-communicable disease such as cancer by 25 percent by 2025, but this is only possible if we work together to realize achievable and impactful interventions,” Cary Adams, UICC Chief Executive Officer added. “World Cancer Day’s motto is ‘Together it’s possible’ and this collaboration with Stand Up To Cancer is another great example of diverse organizations working together towards the same end.”

UICC and Stand Up To Cancer aim to unite all those affected by cancer through a widespread conviction that, together, we can stand up to this disease.  The organizations will leverage their unique but complimentary networks of influence to realize this mission.

In 2011, UICC and its partner organizations ran 244 campaigns world-wide to raise awareness about the global impact of cancer, which is projected to rise to 21.4 million new cases by 2030, with nearly two thirds of all diagnoses occurring in low- and middle-income countries.

About Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)—a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c) (3) charitable organization—raises funds to accelerate the pace of groundbreaking translational research that can get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives. SU2C facilitates collaboration among the best and the brightest in the cancer research community. The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and a Scientific Advisory Committee conduct rigorous, competitive review processes through which SU2C’s grantees are selected. By galvanizing the entertainment industry, SU2C generates awareness and builds grassroots support for this new approach to ending cancer.

About UICC

UICC exists to help the global health community accelerate the fight against cancer. UICC’s growing membership of 472 organizations in over 120 countries features the world’s major cancer societies, ministries of health and patient groups, in addition to influential policy makers, researchers and experts in cancer prevention and control.

UICC has responsibility for the World Cancer Declaration, World Cancer Day, World Cancer Congress and the World Cancer Leaders’ Summit. Additionally, it is a founding member of the NCD Alliance, a global civil society network that now represents almost 2,000 NCD organizations in 170 countries.

Media Contacts:
Rubenstein Communications

Heather Resnicoff
212.843.8497 hresnicoff@rubenstein.com
Kristen Bothwell
212.843.9227 kbothwell@rubenstein.com

Tonic Life Communications

Leah Peyton
+44 7788 191434
Leah.Peyton@toniclc.com

# # #