In an effort to combat cancer, CBS (NYSE:CBS-A), ABC (NYSE:DIS) and NBC (NYSE:GE) will combine forces on September 5 to battle the disease.
What the three networks will do is donate an hour each in primetime to raise money for cancer research. The telecasts will be commercial-free during the fall airing. Behind heart disease, more people die from cancer in the U.S. than any other illness.
"The statistics are staggering," said Charles Gibson, anchor of ABC News's "World News Tonight with Charles Gibson." "Cancer claims one person every minute every day in the United States."
"Every year in this country, more than half a million people die from this disease," said Gibson, "Worldwide, cancer kills more than six million people annually."
Katie Couric, whose husband Jay Monahan died from colon cancer in 1998 added that "Cancer touches us all. For people struggling with this disease, or those who will be diagnosed, scientific breakthroughs can be a matter of life or death – literally.
"We want everyone to know that they can make a difference in this fight,"
According to the American Cancer Society, about 1,437,180 new cancer cases will be diagnosed in 2008 alone.
To coincide with the broadcast, there will also be an interactive website launched called also by the name, "Stand Up To Cancer," to offer more education on the killer disease.
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