Oct. 18, 2005

GREELEY, Colo. - University of Northern Colorado assistant baseball coach Chris Forbes will be a speaker at the LIVESTRONG Gala hosted by the Lance Armstrong Foundation and held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

Forbes is in his fourth year as an assistant coach at Northern Colorado, helping the Bears in the Division I reclassification process. In his second year with the program (2004), the Bears ranked No. 3 nationally in batting average (.335) and he coached Patrick Perry, who led Division I in both hitting (.478) and slugging (.844) percentage and became the program's top draft pick since 1986.

Forbes, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and is now in remission, is active with both the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the American Cancer Society. In the summer of 2004 he was part of the Climb 4 Hope team that trekked up Mt. McKinley to raise funding and awareness for Leukemia research. Forbes was nominated for the 2005 Lance Armstrong Foundation's Spirit of Survivorship Award, which recognizes a cancer survivor who demonstrates a resilient attitude toward his or her illness and inspires others to live life to the fullest.

Forbes will share his survivorship story with those who are in attendance at the fundraiser, which honors Bristol-Myers Squibb Company CEO Peter R. Dolan. Actor Ben Stiller is serving as the Master of Ceremonies for the event and musician Sheryl Crow (Armstrong's fiancée) is providing entertainment.

"I just realized how much I am looking forward to tomorrow night," Forbes said. "It is a night surrounded by positive people, some survivors and some great supporters of the fight against cancer. It is very easy to reflect on my cancer experience and realize why it has been the best thing to ever happen to me - a true test of my spirit and a tremendous opportunity to find out who I really was.

"My survivorship exists because I was forced to change the way I think. I realized that I did not need to win the war in one day but win some small battles to progress. It helped me realize that there is no such thing as a bad day. I learned to stay in the positive. Just like I tell our hitters on the diamond, you must have a short memory. Think ahead, next pitch, next at bat, next game, etc.

"The LAF Gala is another welcomed chapter in my cancer experience and helps me realize how lucky I am to have gone through it. Cancer is not who I am but where I have been!"

For more information on the Lance Armstrong Foundation, log onto http://www.livestrong.org.