The Lu Family Fund

Published on November 30, 2020

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, I have spent the past several months fundraising for the cancer charity organization, Paltown.org, in honor of my wife, Dianna. It has been very successful. We have now become the single largest fundraiser in the organization's history.

Paltown was the greatest resource I had for research in dealing with this disease. It's a community of patients and caregivers sharing crucial intel, as well as offering emotional support. What I got from Paltown was immeasurable; although I don't need Paltown as before, I want to continue helping those who are new to this journey as much as I can.

To that end, Paltown and I are announcing the formation of The Lu Family Fund.

The purposes of the fund are simple and two-fold:

1. To support Paltown's mission of raising awareness, education, and advocacy.

2. To provide direct financial assistance to Stage IV CRC patients in seeking a second medical opinion.

#2 is particularly important to me. Five year survival stats for Stage IV CRC are dismal; roughly 11%. This is due to the disease itself, but also because current standard of care treatment is limited, conservative, passive, and simply insufficient. Most hospitals/doctors default to SOC immediately at diagnosis, and write off all Stage IV patients as terminal, despite the fact that there is a subset of this population who have a meaningful shot at beating five years. Or even be cured. It takes doctors/surgeons who are willing to treat aggressively.

I believe that if patients are aware of this and seek second opinions with key doctors early, that outcomes can be greatly improved. Which will eventually be reflected in five year stats. And potentially redefine standard of care treament.

That's the goal.

Paltown is a small non-profit, with modest overhead expenditures. It's almost entirely volunteer-run. The bulk of the money raised will go directly to Stage IV patients who need help. We can help save people. We can help save families. I'll be sharing more about how you can help soon. Thanks for reading.

Felix