ISRAEL CANCER RESEARCH FUND
Learning the Meaning
of Commitment
THE
theme of the silver anniversary of Israel Cancer Research Fund was
“commitment.” To illustrate, Dr. Yashar Hirshaut, ICRF
president, told about a woman who watched two men at work. One man was
digging a hole, piling the earth neatly on the side. The other man then
shoveled the earth back into the hole.
The men moved on down the street
and again began to dig a hole, then refill it.
After watching them do this
several times, the woman couldn’t resist asking what they were doing.
“We’re part of the
neighborhood beautification program,” the first man explained. “I dig
the hole. Irving puts in the tree. Then Joe here fills in the hole. Just
because Irving is sick, the rest of us shouldn’t do our job?”
“That’s what I call
commitment,” Hirshaut said.
“ICRF is committed to find an
answer to the terror of cancer. Research is being done in Israel where
terror is a word well understood.”
Hirshaut presented the
Humanitarian Tower of Hope Award to Dr. Deborah Axelrod, chief of
the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center at Saint Vincent’s Medical Center
in New York and associate professor of surgery at New York Medical
College.
The 25th anniversary
dinner took place at The Plaza in Manhattan, where the emcee was Jamie
Colby-Wallack, co-host of WebMD TV Weekend. Dinner chairs were Bruce
and Cindy Koplowitz, Dr. Rachel Ostry and Dr. Ed Adler.
Axelrod and Rosie O’Donnell
co-authored Bosom Buddies: Lessons and Laughter about Breast Health and
Cancer (Warner Books). Axelrod also founded the educational website www.breastdoc.com.
An ICRF cancer research
fellowship will be named for Dr. Axelrod.
“I
don’t deserve this honor,” she said, “but I don’t want a
recount.”
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