 Thank you, Kim. It's it's good to be here and I appreciate all the effort that has gone into Making this conference possible And I'm glad that we're doing a live feed on this and and the videos will also be available on the kidney cancer Associations website and probably on the UNCA websites In future as well as just the regular UNC website We've got some people that's that's watching this live in Asheville, North Carolina So I want to welcome those people that that got up early and got out in those mountains and Ventured forth to come and see this I'm an 18-year survivor of kidney cancer and I won't go into much of my story But 18 years ago there wasn't a lot of information out there that I could access and I am so glad that that we have a lot of information out there now and It's an honor to represent and tell you about the kidney cancer association Basically the kidney cancer association is comprised of Everybody and you know, it's a it's an international organization but if you look at that slide you want to make sure you don't call it an infernal non-profit organization because There's some really good people that's involved in the kidney cancer association And it's just like the faculty here that's doing this presentation. They have all given so much of their time their effort to bring about all kinds of knowledge and information on kidney cancer and we appreciate that kidney cancer association was started in 1990 by Dr. Eugene Skonfeld He was diagnosed in 1989 Said in his doctor's office the doctor told him he had kidney cancer and he says what can we do about it? and the doctor told him Gene there's nothing out there and He says well, why not? He says look if you're going to give me a hard time about this You you're a professor in journalism and everything. Why don't you do something about it? If you're if you're so concerned about this do something about it So Gene did just that It wasn't long before he and that doctor in about three or four patients Set down at Gene's home around the kitchen table and they organized what is now the kidney cancer association Gene's words initially in 1990 Was was telling people hey, it's like the doctor opens his medicine bag only to find there's nothing there That's what a kidney cancer patient is going through Well today there's still some items in the doctor's bag that's missing and We appreciate all the research that's going on. We appreciate all the clinical trials that's being conducted to find answers for the problems of kidney cancer and and Gene encourages each one of us today even though he passed away in 1997 he encourages each one of us today that you should understand you can do something about this You know, it takes a lot of will and a lot of action and Your actions and being here this morning demonstrates that you're not only concerned about your family your friends and people that have kidney cancer You're wanting to find answers and be able to share that with other people and I thank you for networking with other people today as you as you talk and The mission of the kidney cancer Association is basically to reduce and eliminate as much suffering from kidney cancer as we possibly can and We appreciate the fact that there's a lot of great strides that have come forth in the last seven or eight years and some of the targeted therapies and So much promise in the future The kidney cancer Association operates in three primary areas in education research and advocacy We're involved even it at a local level in north and south Carolina Through the North Carolina comprehensive cancer program and the South Carolina Cancer Alliance to to bring about some changes that can be helpful One of the things that we're working on this year With with the North Carolina comprehensive cancer program is is to reduce the disparities on insurance coverage of oral medications versus The IV medications. Hopefully we'll have some legislation passed That's been brought up by a lot of agencies and we're glad to be a part of that Hopefully we can bring about some equality on the coverage of that on the education component You know, there's there's a lot of doctors that see kidney cancer patients very rarely and one of the things that we do is We try to bring about education to the doctors there's about 100 support group meetings that are held every year in the United States and Like Kim said, there's about four regional conferences and we're we're gradually building that number and All of these are available on the kidney cancer Association website if you go there, you'll get some good coverage This year in We had a symposium in Chicago and a symposium in Dublin, Ireland and Those doctors that participated in those symposiums learned a lot on the latest Processes of treating and research on kidney cancer. Next year We'll have a symposium in Miami, Florida. Hopefully we'll have a lot more Hispanic participation in the in the symposium that's going to be in Miami and We'll also be in France for the European symposium There's there's a lot of research going on in Europe and we want to capitalize on that as much as possible And we help to educate oncologists during these symposia the number one Resource that you can access about the kidney cancer Association is a website www.kidneycancer.org and It's being revised right now It's got a completely different look to that screenshot that you have now, but feel free to access that We've also got extensive coverage on social media. I think I think our Facebook page we we've got somewhere over 95,000 members right now and we've got a good following on the Twitter feed and a lot of our videos are available on the YouTube channel and our latest endeavor to provide information is on inspire.com we've got a kidney cancer association community support page and This is actually a page that people can enroll in and and ask questions and provide comments and Link to resources that's there. And so we invite all of you to participate in that We're very Proactive about clinical trials we try to work with pharmaceutical companies and and and the research in facilities and other organizations to promote the latest in clinical trials and You know the sad part is That only about five percent of the people participating clinical trials and There are a lot of physicians that never mentioned the fact that there's clinical trials available So we're working hard to alleviate that situation because we think that every kidney cancer Patient as well as other cancer patients Deserves at least the opportunity to know about clinical trials and it's their choice whether they want to participate in one or not We've got some publications That you can link to if you sign up on the kidney cancer Association website You can download We have kidney cancer. We have kidney cancer survivor stories something on Wilma's tumor and We appreciate One of our organizations We've got an oncology navigators Group that helps to keep the we have kidney cancer book updated and this nurse advisory board Really puts forth a lot of effort to keep that updated for us and so it's constantly being revised and we invite you to take a look at that you can also purchase it but the Availability of accessing it online is really incredible. I want to thank you for allowing me to be here That's my email address if if I can be of service to you, please don't hesitate to talk to me Look forward to chatting with many of you and remember that website www.kidneycancer.org Thank you for being here this morning