Home Stretch

20 Time turned out to be much more than we expected. We bounced around from idea to idea until we landed on a fundraiser to spread awareness about a fatal mutation of non-small cell lung cancer. The name of the cancer mutation was epidermal growth factor receptor non-small cell lung cancer or EGFR NSCLC for short. Our inspiration was my grandfather, Ram Paul Gupta. As we said before, he beat cancer 12 years ago, but that came with the price of 1/3 of his left lung. Unfortunately, the cancer mutated and came back. This mutation was only recently discovered and has no known survival rate, and that is why we wanted to spread awareness. Our goal was to raise $5000 and donate it to Max Diehn's research team. They are researching the mutation's ability to grow resistant to every medicine given. We were connected to Dr. Diehn by Dr. Heather Wakelee, head of oncology at Stanford Hospital.

There were two major obstacles we needed to overcome. The first was setting up a conference call with the busiest person in the world. Once we talked to Dr. Wakelee live, she recommended us to Dr. Diehn. After we had an objective and a destination for the money, we set up the campaign. Then the second major obstacle surfaced. Spreading the word. We knew we had to use social media to the max. We understood spreading the word to our friends would have an extremely low success rate, as teenagers don't usually have money. We spent the entire second half of 20Time spreading the word. We started with family and family friends. From this, we raised $501. This was a great momentum boost. However, everything cooled down after about a week. Because of this, we decided to extend our reach. We went to Twitter and messaged every celebrity known to donate to small fundraisers. We sent out emails or messages to about 20-30 celebrities, but with little success. We knew we wouldn't hit our target by the end of 20Time, but that was okay. Alex and I became so enthralled in the project that we plan on continuing this campaign and quest for raising awareness for as long as possible. From a simple project, we evolved into a lifelong adventure. Even though we reached only 1/10 of our goal, we are just getting started. We have some possible paths to take. We could make a club and continue to grow inside the school, or we could create a small non-profit organization in public and try to grow as large as possible. 

In our opinion, our work and growing passion for what we did deserves an A. Although we did not reach our goal of $5000 in the allotted time, we accomplished many things as individuals and as a cohesive unit. Before this project, Alex and I were just acquaintances or just before friends. We had mutual friends, but we didn't really connect with each other. However, this project allowed us to learn and bond with each other. Other than a new friendship, we both gained many useful traits. The most significant trait was time management. It is easy to make a schedule when the deadline is in sight, like for a book report or a test. However, when the deadline is about two months away and you only have a rough outline, you must stay on track and manage the project from every angle possible. Considering this was one of the biggest project we have done, and it included factors out of our control, we had to manage not only time but stay alert and be ready for a major set back at any time. Another major quality we acquired was the ability to cope with real world problems and situations. Considering Dr. Wakelee was a huge part of our project and our schedules did not match up at all, we had to manage and balance the project and our academic career.

Another factor in our evaluation is that this turned into more than just a project. Alex and I are continuing this fundraiser and awareness campaign beyond the bare minimum. We actually care about this topic, and we plan on growing it beyond this school.

Our fundraiser is below:
https://www.gofundme.com/the-financer-against-lung-cancer

Back on Track

Hello Everyone,

As you know, Shiv Gupta and I(Alex) are starting a fundraiser for a mutation of lung cancer known as the epidermal growth factor receptor mutation in non-small-cell lung cancer. We finally contacted the head oncologist at Stanford Hospital to help guide us through many challenges and decisions we might face. Dr. Heather Wakelee said that since the current research is not yet close to a cure, we should donate the money straight to the researchers working on treatment rather than a cure. There are specific research programs dedicated to researching how this mutation of lung cancer grows resistant to different medicines. The head researcher of one of these programs is Dr. Maximilian Diehn. Dr. Wakelee and Dr. Diehn also sent us research papers they were working on to keep up with the development of the research. Dr. Wakelee wanted to take us into their lab, but we are not 18 years old yet, so we are not allowed to.

We have decided to start our fundraiser on GoFundMe. They take 5% from each donation we receive and their payment processor fee is 2.9% plus $0.30 per donation. We decided on GoFundMe because it is a highly rated crowdfunding website and many people start medical fundraisers on that website. We set our goal at $5000. We know that this is a bit of a stretch but we think we can make it, or at least raise a chunk of that money. Dr. Wakelee said that any amount of money helps, but we want to raise as much as we can. Even after the deadline of 20-Time, we will be continuing our fundraiser, as we are truly dedicated to the cause. Dr. Wakelee has promised to keep us updated on any breakthroughs or research done in this field. We are proud of this project because it has become more than a project to us. It is something we are committed to now.

Here is the link to the fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/the-financer-against-lung-cancer

The Toughest Part

Hello everyone,

As you all know, Alex Wang and I(Shiv) are starting a fundraiser for a specified mutation on lung cancer, and we have contacted the head of oncology at Stanford Hospital to help our cause. Dr. Wakelee, the oncologist, is currently treating my grandfather, which is both why we chose this topic and how we came in contact with her. Unfortunately, the head of the fastest-growing field in medicine is extremely busy, and trying to hold a conference call with her is next to impossible. We have tried on many occasions to talk to her, but there have just been constant scheduling conflicts. However, this is the only major setback we have faced while completing this project. After we can talk to her and smooth out all questions, such as where to donate the money (to other cancer foundations, or directly to researchers?), then we can physically set up the fundraiser and get going.

 My partner and I have done some research, and the best word to describe cancer, and excuse my french, is "bastard". We have seen numerous occasions where cancer just keeps coming back in different areas and in different strengths. We learned that only 1% of those with advanced non-small lung cancer survive, and this is one of the main reasons we are fundraising for this topic. Our goal is to help end this terrible thing that plagues millions of families. 

The First Step

Introduction

20 Time is an independent project done in our biology class. Individuals or pairs work on a project that interests them for 20% of the class time. For this project, we have decided to focus on lung cancer because Shiv’s grandfather has a mutation of lung cancer known as the epidermal growth factor receptor mutation in non-small-cell lung cancer.

We asked the question “How can we make the world a better place and make a project that is personal to us?” To answer this, we decided to focus on lung cancer and to make a fundraiser for research on lung cancer. We feel our project adequately answers the main question because we are creating a fundraiser that helps fund research on lung cancer, and it is also personal, mainly to Shiv, but nonetheless it is something we can relate to.

The Project

We have many goals for our 20 Time project. One of the main goals is to spread awareness about lung cancer and that it is a real thing that affects millions of people around the world, not just something that is on the news. In addition, we hope to raise money to fund research on lung cancer so that people with it can be cured or treated.

We will measure our progress by the amount of money donated to our campaign and the number of people we reach, which we will measure by the amount of shares, contributors, and views on our blog.

Our plan moving forward is to create a GoFundMe campaign and to spread it around social media and the Internet. We hope to reach many people to spread awareness and to raise money for our campaign.