Patient Advocacy Groups Mobilize to Support USA Pickleball For Sarcoma Early Detection Campaign

USA Pickleball is the National Governing body for the sport of pickleball in the US. It provides players with official rules, tournaments, rankings and promotional materials. Jamie Elliott, a pickleball champion, an ambassador to USA Pickleball and a patient diagnosed with Dedifferentiated Chondrosarcoma reached out to USA Pickleball to initiate a Public Relations campaign for the Early detection of Sarcomas. According to Jamie, “If my Chondrosarcoma was not detected early, I probably would not be here today.”

Recognizing the month of July is Sarcoma Awareness month, USA Pickleball is going to feature Jamie in their newsletters, social media sites and their web site as well as introducing the Sarcoma Early Detection campaign to shed light on Sarcoma’s and the need for Early Detection to save lives. Future plans include showing short videos on the video boards at regional and national tournaments and including Ads in the tournament programs.

In response, foundations and organizations that advocate for patients and families with Sarcoma are mobilizing to support USA Pickleball in this campaign. A task force is being organized by Jeff Kramer, President of the Chondrosarcoma Foundation to support this effort. The first assignment will be to build a website designed to educate the public about Sarcoma’s and what steps to take if you have a lump, swelling, pain (that will not go away or is worse at night) and/or restricted mobility.

Jamie Elliott, A Champion and an Inspiration
Jamie Elliott has led an exciting and adventurous life. She had a successful career as a stewardess with Braniff Airlines from 1971-1987, and an exciting career as a “stuntwoman” for the Screen Actors Guild from 1987-2002, According to Jamie: “I lucked into meeting a stunt coordinator for the movie business and discovered we had mutual friends. I got my SAG card in 1985 and worked on major films and commercials. I worked on Robocop 1, doubling, Nancy Allen, D.O.A. doubling Meg Ryan, she fell into a Christmas Tree in Dennis Quaid’s arms in D.O.A. Jamie also worked as a stuntwoman on Dante’s Peak, and worked on Free Willy 1, and Hands That Rock the Cradle to name a few.”

Jamie has always been active. She played her first game of pickleball, on Vashon Island, Washington in 1990 and fell in love with it. In 2012, she became a Co-Founder of a Pickleball club. She and the other officers began holding clinics and traveled to Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico to play in tournaments. Jamie became a USA Pickleball Ambassador around 2015. With her knowledge of teaching, she got others involved to help her build courts, and they ordered portable nets

In early 2017, Jamie slipped on ice and fell, hitting her head and back on a curb. She started having back pain that summer and just thought it was from all the golf and pickleball. Her provider sent her for an X-ray, and they found a mass on a rib. Jamie was almost sixty-eight, not on any medicine, healthy as could be so she did not think much more about it. The next day she went for CT, stopped back by clinic, and was told it was a tumor. Her biopsy revealed it was dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma.

In Dec 2018, another tumor was discovered in Jamie’s spine. In March 2019, she had another surgery that paralyzed both legs. Jamie never gave up. She went through months of physical therapy. Her determination to get back on court won over her deep depression. Jamie worked so hard and started walking a little more each day. She did not think she was stable enough to play standing up and decided to buy a sports wheelchair in January of 2021. She named it “Barney” after one of the founders of pickleball, Barney McCallum.

Soon, Jamie started meeting up with other wheelchair players, and they started playing together. Her knowledge of pickleball as a standing player, and being a USA Pickleball Ambassador, helped her with her knowledge of playing on the court. Her new mission was to help wheelchair players and standing players overcome obstacles, and to help grow a new wheelchair pickleball group. The group is not only for her, but for future para-wheelchair players. Her new goal was to make the Pickleball community be all-inclusive. Jamie has found that pickleball helps people with their physical, social, and mental health, whether it is standing or wheelchair.

The video link below is an interview with Jamie and her life story.

Invitation to Join the Task Force on the Task Force for USA Pickleball

Using Pickleball terminology, the campaign is called: Dink Out Sarcoma and the new web site address will be:

Several Patient Advocacy Groups, along with patients, families and caregivers have shown interest in participating in the task force including NORD, SARC, SFA, Sarcoma Coalition, Haystack Project, and the Task Force on Rare Disease. In addition, several foundations that represent patients and families of the diverse subtypes of sarcoma are also joining the cause.

Anyone interested in contributing to this campaign is invited to join. We invite patients and families to share their stories on how early diagnosis made a difference. We encourage all organizations to help us promote and distribute the content we produce for the campaign, and we welcome your suggestions and input into building the new website and future promotional material.

We are also looking for experts to help us craft messages for the public and to pickleball players, and graphic artists to help design infographics, as well as content on Sarcomas and Early Detection.

If you are interested in being part of this effort, please email Jeff Kramer; info.