Lahey Health will sponsor Lung Force Walk in May

BOSTON – The American Lung Association has announced that Lahey Health is the presenting sponsor of its inaugural 2015 Lung Force Walk in Boston.The event, which begins on the Boston Common, will be held Thursday evening, May 14.Plans for the walk began last May. It is the American Lung Association’s singular movement to unite women to stand together against lung cancer and for lung health, the agency said.”Lahey Health has been a partner with the lung association to help smokers quit for good with our Freedom From Smoking Program and (by) educating the public about lung cancer screening,” said Jeff Seyler, president and CEO of the American Lung Association of the Northeast.”We’re pleased to partner with Lahey once again as we launch our Lung Force Walk in Boston and step up efforts to fight lung cancer in women,” he saidLahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington is a pioneer in low-dose CT lung screening, and has offered its screening program to eligible patients since January 2012.Over the past three years, the Rescue Lung, Rescue Life team at Lahey has screened more than 2,800 men and women, and have detected more than 50 cases of lung cancer. Three out of four of these lung cancers have been Stage I, the most curable stage of the disease.In addition, Lahey’s team has shared information on how to activate similar programs at more than 600 hospitals in the United States and abroad. Programs like Rescue Lung, Rescue Life have the potential to save more than 20,000 lives across the United States.”Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States for women, exceeding the number of deaths from cancers of the breast, colon, and prostate combined,” said Andrea McKee, MD, chair of the radiation oncology department at Lahey. “We are proud to sponsor the 2015 Lung Force walk because it shines the light on the fight against lung cancer and helps pave the way for the research and innovation necessary to eradicate this awful disease.”The American Lung Association of the Northeast is part of the American Lung Association, the oldest voluntary health organization in the U.S. It was established in 1904 to combat tuberculosis. Its mission today is to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. The focus is on air quality, asthma, tobacco control, and all lung disease.To learn more about Lung Force or to sign up for the Lung Force Walk in Boston, visit LungForce.org/Walk.