By Cheye Roberson
Sentinel Correspondent
Last Saturday in Cos Cob Park, kids ages 3 to 12 years not only took to the soccer field, but also took a step toward cancer prevention at the “Kicking Cancer” event hosted by the Linda W. Daniel Foundation.
“I grew up playing soccer, and I wanted to find something that was important to me, and so I decided that a camp would be a great way to take something that I knew to share with other kids and other families and to use those proceeds to benefit cancer research and cancer prevention,” said Kyle Daniel, founder of the Linda W. Daniel Foundation.
The foundation is named for Kyle Daniel’s mother. Linda Daniel died in 2000 of multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, when Kyle was a senior in high school.
Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Daniel took the opportunity to speak of his admiration for Dr. Lee Jones, an exercise physiologist who was present at the one-day camp.
“Dr. Jones is working with Memorial Sloan Kettering, which is one of the largest and most accomplished cancer hospitals in the world,” said Daniel. “Dr. Jones is using exercise as medicine. His lab is working to understand the link between being active and how it can impact cancer for somebody who has already had treatment.”
“Kyle reached out to us through our development office at Memorial Sloan Kettering,” Dr. Jones said. “He said he was putting on this fantastic event and would like the proceeds of the event to go to our research. So when we heard that, of course we were blown away.”
Memorial Sloan Kettering is leading the way in studying exercise as a deterrent to cancer. “We study the effects and mechanisms of exercise to both prevent cancer as well as, hopefully, treat cancer,” said Dr. Jones. “We’re very interested in using exercise like a drug. And testing it like a drug. And what we want to find out is, if people are exercising at a certain level, does that prevent cancer from happening in the first place, and if so why? But also in individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer, does it help them after they’ve been diagnosed?”
“There’s convincing evidence that it’s helpful in prevention,” he continued. “If adults exercise at the recommended levels, which is about 150 minutes per week, we know that you can reduce your risk of breast, colon cancer, and prostate cancer by 30 to 50 percent. And we’ve known that for many years.”
The event served as a playful way to get kids exercising and to get parents to form good habits— sooner rather than later.
“We see Kicking Cancer as a way to get kids active and teach them how fun it is to be active,” said Laura Daniel, Kyle’s wife. “And also, the age of the parents who have kids that are 3 to 12 are in their 30’s and 40’s, which really is the age where changes in diet and exercise and different things can make a big impact before you’re in your 50’s.
“We have junior and senior kickers,” Laura Daniel continued. “Our juniors are three to five years old and our seniors are six to 12. We have two women, Cassie and Amelia, who used to play for the professional team in Utah, coaching our senior kickers. We have Filipo Caro, who runs a lot of great camps and activities in the area, who volunteered his time with the younger ones.”
Dr. Jones said, “I think both Megan [Michalski, the supervisor of exercise physiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering] and I feel very humble that events like this happen, and people like Kyle and all his colleagues take time on a Saturday to put these events together to benefit research which we are working as hard as we can to find data and results that will benefit a lot of people. But we couldn’t do that kind of research without these events.”
The parents in attendance were thrilled with the event.
“I think it’s amazing! I think that what they put together is great for the parents. It’s great for the kids. The cause is amazing,” said Erin Marichs. “This is the first year that they brought it to Greenwich and I just think it shows what a great community it is, how many people support this cause, and how many people support Laura and Kyle. I think it’s wonderful.”
For many, Kicking Cancer proved an idea worth standing behind.
“We’ve really had a lot of people help us,” Linda Daniel said. “Philippe donated his time, the town of Greenwich the space, and Whole Foods donated all of our snacks, and Memorial Sloan Kettering gave us a lot of stuff for the goodie bags as well as a local dentistry.”
Kyle and Linda Daniel have held two kicking cancer camps in Columbus, Ohio, were they lived before moving to Greenwich. The Ohio camp ran in July, and the proceeds were donated toward the work of Dr. Don Benson of The James at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Regular activity from an early age is known to be enormously beneficial, but scientists are still discovering all the ways this is so.
“I think for children, it’s all about good habits,” Dr. Jones said. “It’s forming those habits early and understanding the importance of exercise and physical activity. Kids just call it play. Which I think is very important and to maintain that throughout their lives. Hopefully, it will have a bit of a ripple effect on the parents. Because we know it’s never too late. You can always get benefits regardless of how old you are.”
