Sports
Reston charity looking towards Sunday golf fundraiser
The Ashley Fister Cole Foundation aimed at stopping melanoma.
Golfers can raise money for melanoma research and get skin cancer screenings at the eighth annual Driving For Surviving Melanoma Charity Golf Classic Sunday at Stonewall Golf Club at Lake Manassas.
The event is sponsored by the Ashley Fister Cole Foundation, a Reston-based nonprofit.
The golf tournament is the foundation's largest fundraiser, and since its launch in 2002, the foundation has raised more than $200,000 for melanoma research.
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More than raising money, at least six people have received melanoma diagnoses at the golf tournament, said Brian Cole, a Reston man who is chairman of the foundation.
"It's just a testament to fulfilling our mission of touching a life," he said. "There's so many positives."
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Cole helped launch the foundation after his first wife, Ashley Fister Cole, died at age 28 in 2002 after a three-year battle with melanoma. She received treatment and advice from Wen-Jen Hwu, a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, who now works at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Most of the money the foundation raises funds research there.
"She gave us hope, encouragement and and options when we had no others," Cole said.
In 2009, Cole married Sarah, who is a Hodgkins-Lymphoma survivor. She was in the same cancer support group as Ashley. Brian Cole first met Sarah at events where spouses and significant others were encouraged to attend.
In addition to funding research in Texas, the foundation also supports a local melanoma support group within Life With Cancer at Inova Health System.
Life With Cancer's melanoma support group is the only one of its kind in the Washington area, Sarah Cole said.
About 90 players are expected to participate in this year's golf tournament.
For $185, participants get a round of golf, skin cancer screenings, meals, and entry into a raffle for prizes such as restaurant gift certificates. There will also be a silent auction, with prizes including tickets to the U.S Open Championship golf tournament at Congressional Country Club in 2011.
For more information, contact the Ashley Fister Cole Memorial Foundation.
