Buy a Stamp and Mail Some Hope 

SF Chronicle 1dec00

HERE'S ONE SMALL and inexpensive thing you can do this holiday season that will actually make a difference. Between now and New Year's Day, you'll probably buy a bunch of stamps for all the cards and gifts you'll be sending to friends and family. Each stamp costs 33 cents. For an extra 7 cents, you can purchase Fund the Cure stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service. Every extra penny will be used to fund breast cancer research.

Normally, a book of stamps costs $6.60; a book of Fund the Cure stamps costs $8. If all the stamps are sold, together we will raise $16 million for this vital research.

Sadly, most of us know someone -- a friend, a sister, a mother -- who has suffered or died from breast cancer. By now, most of us also know that 1 out of 8 women -- if they enjoy a normal life expectancy -- can expect to be diagnosed with this dreaded disease. Yet 30 years after the "war against cancer" began, a cure for breast cancer remains maddeningly out of reach.