Our Mission/What is sarcoma?
Born in the spring of 2019, Why We Hike was formed to educate the public about the severity and rareness of Sarcoma. Making up only 1% of all adult cancers, but rather prevalent in children (about 20% of all childhood cancers), Sarcoma is made up of many “subtypes”, and due to this, can arise from a variety of tissue structures (nerves, muscles, joints, bone, fat, blood vessels – collectively referred to as the body’s “connective tissues”).
Our goal at Why We Hike is to bring awareness to the forefront. Sarcoma is sometimes curable by surgery (about 20% of the time), or by surgery coupled with chemotherapy and/or radiation (another 30%), but about half of the time, they are totally resistant to all of these approaches. At any one time, about 50,000 patients and their families are struggling with sarcoma. Approximately 16,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and nearly 7,000 people die each year from sarcoma. It is our hope that with further research and education, individuals battling this aggressive form of cancer will benefit from the advances made possible by educational and fundraising events.
In the past, we’ve partnered alongside the Sarcoma Foundation of America (www.curesarcoma.org). This year, we focus a little more local, as we raise money for Duke Cancer Institute’s Sarcoma clinic. Why We Hike will serve as an avenue to raise awareness and secure donations through various fundraising events throughout North Carolina, with 100% of all funds raised going directly to DCI (dukecancerinstitute.org) and their research efforts.
