Congratulations to the Lance Armstrong Foundation on the first anniversary of the LiveStrong Yellow Wristband cancer awareness program. In an article that appeared last week in USA Today, Nike executives estimated that 50 million wristbands have been sold. The original estimate of the number of wristbands that would be sold was only five million. I bet that seemed like a lot to the people who sat around the table when they first came up with the campaign.

Operation Gadget owes much of its success to the LiveStrong Program, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope, and the Target Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Wristband Campaign. I began talking about these programs because I thought they were unique and had a chance to make a difference in many people's lives. The programs have done that, but they've also made a difference in my life and that of my family. We've made many friends through our support of these programs and done some good for people who needed help. Many of Operation Gadget's regular readers found the site through our coverage of one of these programs, and stayed because they like the other content they found here.

The LiveStrong Program is about helping the survivors of cancer to improve their lives. When you wear a yellow wristband you are saying I'm willing to help cancer survivors to live a better life. If you know a cancer survivor, today would be a great day to get in touch with them and see how they are doing.

Update: I forgot to point out Josh Hallett's excellent LiveStrong Band Sales Timeline. The article illustrates that Josh has been on the LiveStrong bandwagon since May 6, 2004. That's the earliest I've seen that any blogger picked up on the LiveStrong program.