Happy Birthday to the American Cancer Society! Today the nation’s largest community-based organization dedicated to the fight against cancer turns 96. That’s a birthday worth celebrating!

When the American Cancer Society first began on May 22, 1913, it was just a group of 15 doctors and business leaders sitting down to dinner in New York City. The group was small, but its purpose was huge – to change the world’s beliefs and behaviors regarding cancer, one of the most lethal and least understood of all diseases.

Now, 96 years later, thanks to the passion and dedication of our grassroots network –- people like you — the American Cancer Society has saved millions of birthdays by contributing to nearly every modern cancer breakthrough, including confirming the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, establishing the link between obesity and multiple cancers, developing drugs to treat leukemia and advanced breast cancer, and showing that mammography is the most effective way to detect breast cancer.

For nearly a century, the American Cancer Society has fought for every birthday threatened by cancer in every community. By taking what they have learned through research and turning it into what they do, they’ve contributed to a 15 percent decrease in the overall cancer death rate between the early 1990s and 2005. That means that the American Cancer Society has helped avoid about 650,000 cancer deaths. That’s a lot of birthdays!

Awareness grows with every life touched and together millions of Americans can make a difference in a society that takes on cancer and celebrates every time someone stays well or survives their disease. Wish the American Cancer Society a Happy Birthday by declaring them the official sponsor of your birthday today. It doesn’t have to be your birthday and you don’t have to be a survivor to declare.

Click here to join the movement.

Happy 96th to the official sponsor of birthdays! And here’s to many more!