By Mark Hrywna
Lance Armstrong was watching the men's 1,500-meter race during the 2004 Summer Olympics when he realized just how big the Livestrong bracelets would be. One of the most powerful Muslim athletes in the world just won the race and fell to his knees to pray; on his wrist, a yellow Livestrong bracelet. "That's when I knew," Armstrong said, "wow, this is going to be big."

Greeted with a standing ovation, the cycling legend and cancer survivor was Tuesday morning's speaker for the Maurice Gurin Lecture on Philanthropy during the Association of Fundraising Professionals 44th annual International Conference on Fundraising in Dallas.

Nike President Phil Knight still kids Armstrong that the bracelets were "the dumbest idea I ever heard." But it was Nike that approached Armstrong's cycling team before the 2004 Tour de France, promising a $1 million donation and five million bracelets. The Texas native first thought, "What in the hell are we going to do with 4.7 million yellow bracelets, after begging family and friends and everyone we know to take one."

Three years and 65 million bracelets later, Armstrong is one of the most recognizable figures on the globe thanks in part to those little $1 yellow bracelets. "They're not laughing about that idea anymore," he said. "The beauty of that is 65 million people bought something because they cared about a cause."

Now retired from professional cycling, Armstrong promises to be an advocate for cancer prevention and cures. "This for me is a competition," he said, something to fill the competitive void, and to make cancer a national health priority.

Getting just 5 or 10 percent of those who bought a bracelet to help a cause could make cancer a national health policy, he said. "We have to do that now because we're tapped," Armstrong said. "Things are being forgotten, neglected."

During a visit to a Harlem health clinic, a doctor explained to Armstrong that 600,000 lives a year are lost to cancer, but a third of those could have been saved, but they didn't know. "It's the difference between what we know and what we do, everything in between, it's a moral issue," he said.

Ten years ago, when Armstrong was leaving an Indianapolis hospital, his oncologist explained the obligation of the cure. Armstrong had two choices: One, leave the hospital and keep his cancer a private matter, never discussing it. Or, leave the hospital and be a representative for the fight against cancer for the rest of his life.

It was before he had won all those Tour de France races and sold all those bracelets. "I didn't think anyone would listen," Armstrong said, but he accepted the obligation of the cure. Similarly, he challenged fundraisers -- "though I don't have to tell this group" -- to continue to make a difference and fulfill that obligation on a daily basis.

"We have to shrink that difference between what we know and what we do."