The following is an outline of the speech Shuang delivered on November 11, 2011, at the Shanghai American School Pudong campus during the “Relay for Life” fund raising event for the American Cancer Society. First, if you are boy, please take a look at the guy to your right, and if you are a girl, please take a look at the girl to your left and your right. Now between you and the guy to your right, one can expect to find cancer over his lifetime. Among you and the girls to your left and right, one may have to deal with cancer over her lifetime. One in three females and one in two males in America can expect to have cancer over their lifetimes. Cancer can strike anyone….. It can strike someone as legendary as Steve Jobs, whose life work touched so many lives in more profound way than we understand today. It can strike someone like Yu Juan, a young university teacher and a young mother in Shanghai, whose aspiration is not riches or fame, but to build a small patch of forest to help restore the ecosystem in rural China. Cancer can strike at any time. One of the most accomplished woman scientists was inflicted with cancer while her discovery gives us the first non-surgical treatment, radiation, which is still used widely today to detect and treat cancers. I also know of a young boy who was having a good time at the playground one day, and the next day was diagnosed with a large brain tumor that abruptly halted all the blissfulness and innocence every 5-year old should have. It is not a new problem that confronts human beings. Ancient Egyptians had the first cancer medical report in 1,500 BC. It is an ageless problem, and it strikes human beings of all ages. …and it knows of no races, borders, or boundaries. It’s a global problem, and a problem for humanity. At the individual level, however, you cannot get a more personal life-changing event than having cancer. When I received my diagnosis four years ago, I did not say anything at home for a few days. While I managed to continue life as usual, inside there is nothing more agonizing than realizing now it’s your turn to have an illness that does not have a cure. Having cancer is the biggest challenge a person will ever face, and hopefully fewer people will have to confront it. At the same time, it allows me to see, and appreciate, what life means in ways that I would not have comprehended without cancer, because…… It brings out the best in the family. My family rallied around me and supported me, and put up with more challenges than I can imagine, scarified their own opportunities and comfort just to be with me. It also brings out the best in the community. My cancer was too advanced to enter the national organ transplant pool, my friend Rob Holt offered to donate half of his liver to me so I can live. From Dr. George Dickstein, I understand what it means to be a compassionate healer, and the team of Chinese doctors under Dr. Fan Jia in Shanghai demonstrated the skills and capability that surpassed many people’s expectation and are truly world-class. Without my family, my friends, and my doctors, I would not be here speaking to you today. I was supposed to have only a few months to live - and that was four years ago. I am still here, and my personal battle with cancer continues, for I want to see the Class of 2013 SAS at the high school graduation ceremony, and I want to see at reunion gatherings many of the familiar faces here – and your babies. I am fighting against cancer, my family is fighting against cancer, and YOU, everyone here today, are also joining the fight against cancer in your way. We are winning and will win. Here is the five-year survival rate of only a few types of cancers. One of the most dramatic progresses is made with acute lymphoblastic leukemia from 4% to 94%. You have a worse chance of surviving five-year of driving in Shanghai traffic than having ALL. There are many other types of cancers that are not making as dramatic improvement as those on the chart, and we need to work on them all. Any of us and our loved ones could be stricken by cancer. Cancer affects people everywhere in the world, they, we, you need more research to understand the biology of cancers, better technology to discover cancer earlier, more insight into preventing cancers, and better medicine and treatment to prolong life, improve life quality and ultimately save lives. What you do may seem to be a small drop in the proverbial bucket against an illness so pervasive, so stubborn and cunning, but it’s the rain drops of many that fill up lakes, rivers and the vast ocean. Every step you take today, however small, is a big help to humanity, to the boy or girl sitting next to you. It goes beyond the money raised; it also gives hope to people like me who are suffering from cancer today. So, thank you!