Misstropolis

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Music Against Myeloma

by Abigail Jones

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This spring, nearly 150 young professionals, dressed in skinny jeans and casual work attire, some tipsy, all of them giddy, gathered at BLVD, a bar in SoHo in New York City. On stage, R&B and jazz sensation Danielia Cotton belted out contagious tunes while the crowd clamored for cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine (an NYC obsession), cheeses from Murray’s Cheese (another local obsession), and “Cancer Sucks” socks.

The occasion was the annual fundraiser for Music Against Myeloma (MAM), a non-profit raising awareness and funds for multiple myeloma. This was no black tie affair, and that was entirely on purpose; the night was all about letting loose and fighting cancer.

It’s a very personal fight for MAM’s co-founder, Slava Rubin, whose father passed away from the disease in 1993, when Rubin was only 13 years old. Not to be confused with melanoma, cancer of the skin, multiple myeloma is cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow. It affects approximately 20,000 Americans each year. Though the disease is treatable, it is not curable, and Rubin wants to change that fact.

In 2005, he conceived of MAM with Matt Ostrower, a musician he met a few years earlier while biking in Israel. At the time, Ostrower knew almost nothing about multiple myeloma, but his sister was battling thyroid cancer, so he jumped at the opportunity. The idea was simple: combine great live music with great food, add a chic downtown locale, and the friends—and funds—will follow. They were right.

“Cancer is so closely connected to everybody,” says Rubin, whose day job involves running IndieGoGo, a website he founded that creates fundraising, promotion, and discovery tools for the film and media industry. “People just want to find a way to give back and fight it.”

He and Ostrower partnered with the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) and now host an event in NYC each year. Next up, they want to take MAM to cities across the country.

At this year’s party, Ostrower, who works as Program Manager at the music website Pandora.com, performed solo, along with Cotton, Dave Murphy, and the Turn. Previous performers include Boston’s homegrown Rachel Platten, whose music is a confection of indie lightness and soul, Tony Orlando, who showed up for a surprise set last year, plus Ostrower’s band Lost in October.

“The best thing musicians know how to do is perform and bring people in,” he says, “so to donate their talent and their art is perfect.”

Since 2006, MAM has raised over $60,000, established the $25,000 Mark Rubin Research Grant, and become one of the largest grass roots organizations working with the IMF.

Michael Katz, Vice President of the IMF and a member of its Board of Directors, knows first hand just how important MAM’s work is.

“When I was diagnosed in 1990, it was a very, very lonely time to have myeloma,” Katz says.

Few people had even heard of the disease, and finding other patients—especially those who were doing well—was difficult. Treatment options included a variety of conventional chemotherapy, as well as bone marrow transplant, but the basic problem, Katz explains, was that both relied on the same mechanism: poisoning the cancer cell. When this mechanism stopped working, there were no alternatives.

“There was a predictable cycle of failure of treatment and death that was all too common and all too quick for myeloma patients.”

Everything changed roughly ten years ago.  Doctors discovered that thalidomide, the very drug that had been used to treat morning sickness in pregnant women—and later caused severe birth defects—actually extended the lives of multiple myeloma patients. Since then, doctors have developed new and effective versions of the drug. Before thalidomide, says Katz, 20% of patients died in the first year of diagnosis; now the survival rate in the first year is nearly 100%.

Katz, for one, has been living with the disease for 19 years. He may be an anomaly, but with the help and persistence of organizations like MAM, he may soon become the rule.

To join the fight, visit http://www.musicagainstmyeloma.org.