Breaking down the barriers and stomping out the stigmas associated with lung cancer.

San Carlos, CA/Washington D.C. – Bonnie Addario, co-founder and chair of GO2 for Lung Cancer, the largest lung cancer patient advocacy organization in the United States and a survivor herself, profiles 21 men and women battling advanced lung cancer in her book, “THE LIVING ROOM:A Lung Cancer Community of Courage (Post Hill Press (May 18, 2021). “We are a ‘Patients First’ entity,” says Addario, “and everything we do is about and for them.”

A determined activist on behalf of patients suffering from the disease, Addario, along with her family, founded the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation in 2006, along with the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute in 2008, which is devoted to research. She has built an extraordinary global network of fellow activists, patients, doctors, oncologists, researchers, and caregivers—a thriving and ever-growing community devoted and committed to advocating on behalf of those patients and families affected by lung cancer.

Among all cancers, none are more deadly than lung cancer. Globally, more than 40 million lives have been lost to this particular cancer and accounts for one-quarter of all cancer diagnoses, the most deaths of any cancer, and as many as the next three cancers (breast, prostate and colon) combined.

When Addario was diagnosed with stage 3B lung cancer, she was 55 years old and at the top of her game and leading one of the largest privately held oil companies in the United States. In her corporate arena, and as the first woman to be elected to the California Independent Oil Marketers Association, she was the one always in control; she was the one always fighting for change and challenging the norm.

After her diagnoses, she knew this was going to be a very different kind of challenge, one she would have to depend on others for if she were to survive. And she has – one of the 21 percent who live past five years – to not only tell her story, but to help others tell theirs.

The people you will meet in THE LIVING ROOM will lead you to believe that miracles are all around us, that they’re happening every day, and that they just might happen to the next cancer patient who picks up this book.

THE LIVING ROOM, which draws its name from a virtual support group live-streamed internationally once a month by GO2 for Lung Cancer, showcases 21 powerful and inspiring profiles of men and women united by this deadly disease.

These are some of the stories of fear, hope, courage, and determination.

  • Lucy and husband, Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgical resident entering his final year of training, had brought their baby girl, Cady, into the world just eight months before his passing. Lucy wrote the epilogue and published her husband’s bestseller, When Breath Becomes Air.
  • Hank “The Big Hug” Baskett, S. Air Force Chief Master Sergeant (retired), whose deployments took him all over the world, was diagnosed with lung cancer, but the physician treating him hadn’t done the proper biomarker testing and did not realized he was eligible for a targeted therapy.
  • Gina Hollenbeck, was not yet 40 years old and the non-smoking mother of two boys who looked the picture of health when she walked into the ER holding her X-rays under her arm and had to convince the doctors that something was seriously wrong with her.
  • Matt Hiznay, a lifelong nonsmoker was only 24 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Early treatment saved his life
  • Juanita Segura was a 51-year-old healthy eater and active in a training regimen known as CrossFit. The first doctor diagnosed her with asthma and prescribed an inhaler. Then the wheezing turned into a horrible cough. The next doctor had to deliver the news that she had lung cancer. “Dude,” she told him, “I don’t even smoke.”

In Addario’s mind, contracting cancer isn’t about dying, it’s about living. And these stories are meant to inspire and provide hope, and most of all to break down the stigmas associated with lung cancer and demonstrate how the new wave of treatment options are moving lung cancer toward becoming a manageable disease.

Kristie Kahl, editorial director of CURE® says, “There is much hope for the future of cancer and its treatment. And it is with individuals like Bonnie J. Addario, and foundations like the GO2 for Lung Cancer, that we can offer hope to many. In particular, such hope is seen throughout the lung cancer community.”

The book can be purchased on Amazon. All proceeds from THE LIVING ROOM will benefit research and patient services.

BONNIE J. ADDARIO, is Co-Founder, Board Chair and patient advocate of GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, as well as an educator. She has empowered patients and given them a voice since receiving a stage 3B lung cancer diagnosis almost two decades ago. Recognizing the need for education, empowerment, advocacy, and research to help patients and families, Ms. Addario and her family founded the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (ALCF) in 2006. In 2019, ALCF and Lung Cancer Alliance merged, forming GO2 for Lung Cancer. Ms. Addario acts as an adviser to industry leaders, clinicians, and policymakers and is a member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition board. In 2020, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from CURE Magazine.

“THE LIVING ROOM speaks to the heart as well as the head, a seminal treatise on the human condition with overriding themes that extend far beyond even a disease as pernicious as lung cancer. Entering THE LIVING ROOM is like meeting twenty special people you’d like to claim as friends. This is a book as informative as it is inspiring, as eye-opening as it is uplifting, as relevant as it is refreshing. A tour de force of form and functional celebration of life that salvages hope from despair in a mesmerizing and astonishing reading experience.” – Reader’s Digest

THE LIVING ROOM: A Lung Cancer Community of Courage
By Bonnie J. Addario with Jon Land
Post Hill Press; May 4, 2021
Hardcover: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1642937363; ISBN-13: 978-1642937367