Livestrong anti-cancer charity pledges to carry on without Lance Armstrong
Anti-cancer charity says its continued existence is based on the needs of patients and survivors, and transcends its disgraced cyclist founder
The anti-cancer charity founded by disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong will survive despite the doping scandal that forced Armstrong out of the organisation, says the boss of Livestrong Foundation.
"Will the Livestrong Foundation survive? Yes. Absolutely yes," Andy Miller said in what was billed as a "major" speech at the foundation's annual meeting in Chicago on Thursday. "Our work is too meaningful, our role too unique, the need too great, to stand for any other answer."
Will the Livestrong Foundation survive? Yes. Absolutely yes. Our work is too meanginful, our role too unique
Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France titles last year after a United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) report put him at the centre of what it called the biggest doping conspiracy in cycling history.
In a January television interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong ended years of denials and confessed he used performance-enhancing substances to help him win the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005.
Armstrong founded Livestrong in 1997 after he underwent chemotherapy to overcome testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and other parts of his body.
The Usada report forced him to quit last year as Livestrong's chairman and later resign from its board of directors, the triumphs that had inspired others to fight cancer having been revealed as a doping-aided hoax.
