What can you do in 12 hours? Go to work, come home, eat, relax and unwind? Maybe you can also work out or catch up with friends while listening to music at a local shop…especially one that is the center of a 12 hour marathon of drumming to support breast cancer research.

On November 6, 2010, Randy Van Patten, the founder of Vanz Drumming, drummed for 12 consecutive hours, live (and streaming on the Internet!), in support of “Drummin’ for Cancer” – a fundraising event in to benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, the global leader of the breast cancer movement, that strives to eradicate breast cancer as a health issue for women and men.

Randy Van Patten has been drumming for over 30 years, and currently resides in Florida where he continues to perform, teach and has even released an instructional DVD. Drummin' for Cancer began when Van Patten made an offhand joke about a “drum solo for cancer,” and he had no idea how far that comment would take him. Then, according to vanzdrumming.com, it “swiftly became a possibility... then a probability... then a hair- raising 12-hour reality!!” A man who had been touched by cancer through his family or friends, like so many others, decided to take matters into his own hands and start making some noise to benefit others: a 12 hour drum solo to benefit breast cancer research.

Since breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women, the number one cause of cancer death in Hispanic women and the second most common cause of cancer death in white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native women, supporting this cause is more than a personal quest, it is global.