• Home
• Music
• Entertainment
• Design
• Books
• Technology
• Help/Environment
• Wellness
• Life Banter

As a parent I can tell you I would do anything for my son. We're talking walking on coals, swimming oceans, walking to the ends of the earth and back again DAILY if it were necessary. So while I do not understand the plight of parents fighting for the life of their child, I do understand the love behind it.

Chad Czapor is 17 years old. He is a junior in high school. He has tons of friends and can be found helping out at sporting events whether with coaching or cheering on his brothers.

Recently doctors told him he has a brain tumor. His parents, Stephani and John, are now crusading, along with their community, to raise money for a procedure that could save his life.

Stephani and John are searching endlessly to find a doctor to operate on Chad. It is a delicate operation. They found a surgeon in New York who specializes in this type of brain tumor, but unfortunately, their insurance will not pay for the surgery.

Perhaps the risks are too great, perhaps the insurance fears such an operation would be fruitless. I won't pretend to understand how any person or business can put a price on a life or some how calculate whether or not a patient deserves a chance to fight, but this is our world.

And so, even in a time of struggle when it is hard for anyone to meet ends meet, I am asking you to put some spare cash (or even change) aside and add it to the Czapor Family Fund.

You may not have healing hands or be able to fulfill wishes, but you do have the ability to put a $1 to a cause which could save a human life and that my friends is a priceless and selfless honor.

"You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result." - Mahatma Gandhi

Labels: brain, cancer, funding, insurance

Emmy Award-Winning Filmmaker Takes On The Question 'How Far Have We Come In the War on Cancer?'

"What is the truth about cancer? Is it the same deadly killer it was 30 years ago -- or are we making progress? Find out through the poignant stories of patients battling the disease in The Truth About Cancer premiering nationally on PBS Wednesday, April 16 at 9:00pm ET."

Part science, part personal catharsis, part character-driven storytelling, the 90-minute documentary is narrated by Linda Garmon, who tells the moving story of her husband's battle with cancer. Sounds like it will be quite the tear jerker.

Following the 90-minute documentary is a 30-minute panel discussion entitled Take One Step: A Conversation About Cancer with Linda Ellerbee. News journalist and breast cancer survivor Linda Ellerbee moderates the dialogue featuring a panel of doctors, all of whom are cancer survivors themselves.

SOURCE

Labels: cancer, documentary, PBS

In case you were wondering what Cal Ripken, Jr. has been up to I thought I'd let you know.

Ripken, known as the "Ironman" because of his consecutive games streak, lost his father to lung disease just weeks before Opening Day in 1999. He now makes a strong effort in educating the public about lung cancer and I am extremely thrilled he is doing so.

Last night I was reading stats about cancer research. Brian and I discussed it briefly because I asked him why lung cancer would be getting so little research when it is the leading cause of cancer. He knew immediately the answer was lack of attention due to the lack of funding.

Ripken joined the Lung Cancer Alliance as part of their "The Face in the Fight" campaign, in the beginning of 2007 and renewed his commitment for 2008. "I am proud to work with Lung Cancer Alliance to help reverse the stigma surrounding the disease," said Ripken. "For too long, lung cancer has been ignored and those diagnosed have been blamed. Lung cancer survivors deserve to be treated with compassion and support regardless of their smoking history." Joe Buck and Troy Aikmen are also big parts of the campaign.

While I understand lung cancer may be on of the most preventable types, because well, you can stop smoking or never start smoking, I still don't believe it is right to give the disease less attention for that reason. Having Cal Ripken's name on the bill will hopefully benefit the need for research in this area.

Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer, killing more Americans each year than breast, prostate and colon cancers -- combined. What you might not know and what I didn't know is that 60% of lung cancer patients are people who quit smoking decades ago or never smoked to begin with. That shocked me and I think if more people noted that fact then they would be more apt to pitch in. However, Ripken said it well when he explained these patients should be treated with the same compassion and support regardless of their history.

Click here for a PDF poster to hang up at your place of work or around your local community.

In other related news, Congressman E. Clay Shaw, Jr. has taken the lead on lung cancer in the House of Representatives. He convinced 73 of his colleagues in the House to cosign a letter demanding more lung cancer research funding. To thank Congressman Shaw, a lung cancer survivor, for his hard work and leadership in getting other members of the House to stand up for more research funding for lung cancer please contact him.

By Mail:
The Honorable E. Clay Shaw
U.S. House of Representatives
1236 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

If your representative is one of the cosigners, thank him or her also.

If your representative is NOT one of the cosigners, you may want to ask if he or she would send a similar letter. To contact your representative simply go to www.house.gov/writerep/ and enter your ZIP code.

Labels: cancer, lung dieases

I don't know about you but I never complete my resolutions. I always have the best of intentions but by February I'm back to eating tons of cookies. What can I say? I have a whole set of sweet teeth.

My hope for 2008 is that doctors and scientists are able to develop new treatments/cures for cancer. Or perhaps more likely, better screenings which are less invasive and can be used for very early detection.

I'd also like to see more people delve into the healthcare profession. We are lacking good doctors, nurses and surgeons that actually care about their patients more than their salary or recognition.

And last but not least, I would like less news on childhood obesity. And for that to happen we need to make sure our families are active and eat more nutritiously. Less fast food and more sit-down family dinners. It's not easy, but in many ways it is very necessary.

Labels: cancer, nutrition, obesity, research, resolutions

Almost all animals and plants synthesize their own vitamin C except humans and a small number of other animals, including, apes, guinea pigs, the red-vented bulbul, a fruit-eating bat and a species of trout.

This morning in some of my reading I came across an article which discusses the use of vitamin C in treating cancer patients.

Drs. Cameron and Pauling's wrote a book "Cancer and Vitamin C" and it provides 26 case histories of patients with various cancers who received a benefit from vitamin C including: brain, breast, prostate, bladder, lung, stomach, ovarian cancer, leukemia and mesothelioma.

"Vitamin C has many roles that may be associated with fighting cancer including: acting as an anti-oxidant and scavenging free radicals, supporting the various immune cells, modulating cell growth and differentiation, helping to synthesize carnitine which is essential for the transport of fat to mitochondria, and possibly even strengthening collagen."

Scientists found that intravenous vitamin C in the form of ascorbate killed cancer cells in lab tests. Even if large amounts of vitamin C don't always cure cancer, it is extremely interesting to know the benefits of this vitamin.

I'm sure there will be a constant argument when it comes to treating cancer. I do hope that whatever ends up being most beneficial to the patient is what gets done. Pharmaceutical companies shouldn't refute these studies just because it may or may not effect their bottom line. A human life is priceless.

Source

Labels: cancer, vitamin c, vitamins

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia among adults, accounting for 40% of the cases. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is predicting about 15,5340 new cases of CLL will be diagnosed in 2007. About 95,579 people are living with CLL. Those are alarming numbers, but the good news is that progress is being made daily on better treatments.

The Institute of Cancer Research has just published an article discussing combo drug treatments for Leukemia patients.

"Patients with the most common type of leukemia achieved better responses to treatment with two cancer-fighting drugs than one in a large international study.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients also had much better survival rates without disease progression when treated with a combination of the chemotherapeutic drugs fludarabine and cyclophosphamide than patients treated with fludarabine alone or another single-agent chemotherapy, chlorambucil." (Source WebMD)

This information comes to us not long after hearing about a drug called CD37-SMIP, which targets a protein called CD37 on the surface of leukemia cells.
The study shows that it can successfully attach to the protein on the leukemia cells and kill them.

If you would like to help support finding a cure for leukemia you can sport a "relentless" red wristband. The bracelets cost $1 and proceeds go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Labels: cancer, leukemia, new drugs