Stand Up To Cancer Celebrates 2nd Anniversary With the Dave Stewart and Joss Stone 'Up2 You' Video Challenge

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May 27, 2010, 06:00 ET

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, May 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In celebration of its two year anniversary on May 28, 2010, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) has launched the Dave Stewart "Up2 You" Video Challenge. The Dave Stewart "Up2 You" Video Challenge invites the public to upload a YouTube video in response to Dave Stewart's powerful song "Stand Up To Cancer" which has become the anthem for the organization.

The song is featured in a PSA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yxwtsVIQSQ) directed by Jesse Dylan (will.i.am's "Yes We Can") and features the music and vocals of Stewart, Joss Stone and violin virtuoso, Ann Marie Calhoun. The challenge encourages everyone to show how they stand up to cancer by recording their own rendition and submitting their video entry on SU2C's YouTube channel*. All valid entries may be eligible to be included in the September 10th telecast.

"Dave has given us a powerful anthem which is a testament to all 12 million cancer survivors as well as a moving elegy to the millions we have lost from the disease," said Laura Ziskin, Co-Founder of Stand Up To Cancer. "For a long time, the word 'cancer' was taboo, you didn't say it out loud. It was whispered. Now that Dave has fearlessly put the word in this song, we are urging the public to be more open to talking about the disease and fighting it side by side with our organization."

"This song is something I hope will inspire conviction while also acknowledging the loss caused by this merciless disease," said Dave Stewart. "I encourage everyone who has been touched by cancer to listen to this anthem, enter the contest and make it their own. 'Stand Up' and participate for those you've loved, those you've lost, and for those who are in the fight."

Here are the challenge details:

Entries will be accepted from May 27th through July 30th, 2010 on Stand Up to Cancer's YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/SU2C).

From August 12th-19th, the public will be able to vote for their favorite semi-finalists on Stand Up to Cancer's YouTube channel.
From August 23rd -27th, the celebrity panel voting committee which will include Dave Stewart, Jesse Dylan, and SU2C Co-Founder, Laura Ziskin will go through the finalists and select the top 5 winners and the Grand Prize winner.
A Grand Prize winner will be announced on September 1, 2010 from the top five videos and will win a Takamine guitar valued at $3,999.
All valid entries may be eligible to be featured in the 2010 Stand Up to Cancer telecast. SU2C will contact those entrants whose videos are being considered by September 1, 2010.

With a return to primetime television on September 10, 2010, at 8PM EDT & PDT / 7PM CT, Stand Up To Cancer will follow up its historic 2008 fundraising telecast with a star-studded appeal to build continuing public support and donations for cutting-edge cancer research that translates at a rapid pace from the laboratory to treatments and technologies that benefit patients.

ABC, CBS and NBC are donating one hour of simultaneous commercial-free primetime for the nationally televised September 10th fundraising special, to be telecast from Los Angeles. HBO, Discovery Health, E!, MLB Network and The Style Network will also carry the show this year, and other networks and cable channels are expected to join the effort. The program will include calls to donate through designated phone lines, as well as to the standup2cancer.org web site. One hundred percent of all public donations go directly to cancer research.

The primary goal of SU2C is to raise funds for groundbreaking translational research to accelerate the delivery of new therapies to patients, getting them from the "bench to the bedside" as quickly as possible. SU2C brings together scientists from different disciplines across various institutions to work collaboratively -- rather than competitively -- at a critical time in the field of cancer research.

For more detailed information about Stand Up To Cancer please visit www.standup2cancer.org

About the Stand Up To Cancer Initiative

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) -- a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)3 charitable organization -- raises funds to hasten the pace of groundbreaking translational research that can get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives. In the fall of 2007, a group of women whose lives have all been affected by cancer in profound ways began working together to marshal the resources of the media and entertainment industries in the fight against this disease.

The SU2C founding members include Laura Ziskin, executive producer of the Sept. 5, 2008 broadcast and the upcoming one, who is a cancer survivor; Sherry Lansing, chairperson of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Board of Directors and founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation; EIF President and CEO Lisa Paulsen; Katie Couric; EIF Senior Vice President Kathleen Lobb; Rusty Robertson and Sue Schwartz of the Robertson Schwartz Agency; nonprofit executive Ellen Ziffren; and Noreen Fraser, founder of the Noreen Fraser Foundation (NFF) and a cancer survivor. SU2C was formally launched on May 27, 2008.

Major League Baseball was the founding donor to contribute to Stand Up To Cancer. Other major SU2C supporters include Sidney Kimmel, the country's largest individual supporter of cancer research, Amgen, Bloomberg Philanthropies, GlaxoSmithKline, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Wallis Annenberg & The Annenberg Foundation, Alliance for Global Good, Milken Family Foundation, Philips Electronics, Steve Tisch, The Island Def Jam Music Group, Comcast and many others. In addition to ABC, CBS and NBC, SU2C major media partners include AOL, Conde Nast Media Group, eBay Inc., Facebook, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Hearst Corporation, Los Angeles Times, Meredith Corporation, The New York Times Company, Time Inc and WebMD.

About the Entertainment Industry Foundation

Stand Up To Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that serves as the collective philanthropy for the television and film businesses. EIF has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to support programs addressing critical health, education and social issues.

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING. This is a skill challenge. Challenge Entry Period ends 07/30/10. Open to legal residents of the US including DC who are 18+ years. Visit www.standup2cancer.org/Up2You for Official Rules. Sponsor: Stand Up To Cancer c/o Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 W. 5th Street, Suite T-700, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Void in Puerto Rico and where prohibited.

SOURCE Stand Up To Cancer