Alexandria’s Pat Malone will stand up to cancer for 24 hours straight on Feb. 10 for his 11th annual Stand Up To Cancer fundraising event.
The 67-year-old Malone suffers from hereditary spastic paraplegia, making those last hours of standing very painful, he tells ALXnow.
“I appreciate having the ability to raise money for Stand Up To Cancer,” Malone said. “It’s just part of the ongoing battle we all need to win.”
The event starts at 4:26 p.m. at Fire Works Pizza in Arlington Monday (Feb. 10) and ends the same time on Tuesday. That’s when Malone remembers waking up from surgery to remove a hockey puck-sized cancerous malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor from his shoulder at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in early 2014. The 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran underwent dozens of radiation treatments and has been cancer-free ever since.
“I do watch SportsCenter into the early wee hours of the morning,” Malone said. “It’s an emotional high by the time 4:26 p.m. hits. There’ll be a large group of people who stand around and do a countdown and then I sit down.”
Malone doesn’t know for sure, but estimates raising more than $100,000 for the Stand Up To Cancer nonprofit over the past decade.
Fifty percent of men and about 33% of women will get cancer in their lifetimes, according to The National Cancer Institute.
