ROCK FOR RONNIE “YEAR OF THE DRAGON” CONCERT BRINGS IB $80,000 FOR RONNIE JAMES DIO STAND UP & SHOUT CANCER FUND, EDDIE TRUNK RECEIVES “KING OF ROCK N’ ROLL” AWARD

The Rock For Ronnie “Year of the Dragon” Concert Celebration, which took place on May 19th at the Lou Bredlow Pavilion at Warner Center Park in Woodland Hills, CA, raised some $80,000 for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund.

Radio and television personality Eddie Trunk, who is heard on SiriusXM’s 103 Faction Talk channel, once again hosted and was presented with the special “King of Rock ‘N Roll” award from Wendy Dio for his support of the charity since its inception. “I was both honored and surprised by Wendy Dio on stage at the Rock for Ronnie when she presented me with the ‘King of Rock ‘N Roll’ award for my work with the Dio Cancer Fund,” says Trunk. “Thank you to Wendy and thanks to all the fans and bands that joined us to raise funds and celebrate Ronnie James Dio.”

Dr. David Wong, whose team at the UCLA School of Dentistry has had the support of the Dio Cancer Fund since 2016, was on hand to accept a check for $25,000 toward his team’s research to develop a simple, non-invasive saliva swab test for early cancer detection. His team’s progress in researching salivary biomarkers for gastric cancer has allowed them to prepare to submit their findings to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a “Gastric Cancer Biomarker Characterization Center” grant in the coming weeks. Cancer fingerprints are 7 times more prevalent in saliva than in blood.

Rock icon Lita Ford asked PBS Guitar Builder to the Stars Jim Cara , who has designed custom guitars for her, Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley of KISS and Brad Gillis of Night Ranger, among others to create a one-of-a-kind DIO/Dio Cancer Fund guitar, which she played on two songs during in her All-Star Band appearance. The unique instrument, emblazoned with a DIO logo that lights up, was later auctioned and brought in $11,500 for the charity.

A guitar signed by all the members of Quiet Riot was also auctioned off and sold for an additional $7000.