Terry Gross recently interviewed writers and cancer survivors Iva Skoch and Kairol Rosenthal on Fresh Air. Both authors discuss the health insurance issues they dealt with when they were diagnosed. Kairol Rosenthal uses a succinct and thoughtful anaology - recalling the myth about a child trapped under a car and the mother somehow gathering enough strength and focus to pull the car off the injured child - and how upon her diagnosis in her twenties, she felt like both the child and the mother. Spoken like someone that has navagated the messy labryinth of treatment, paperwork, and phone calls that is known as Young Adult Cancer.
The first chapter of Kairol Rosenthal’s book Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s contains great health insurance and financial guidance information for cancer patients. You can download it for free on her website http://everythingchangesbook.com/
Listen to the Fresh Air interview here (running time 38mins 35sec).
Or view the transcript here.
Read Skoch’s Newsweek.com article “Young Patients Laugh at Cancer”
A recent article in The Telegram profiles a foundation started in 2008 specifically to raise awareness about the gap in cancer awareness and resources for patients between the ages 15-40.
According to the article, James W. Coghlin Sr. founded the 15-40 Connection, based in Massachusetts, to “close the AYA (adolescent and young adult) gap” in survival rates, research, education and awareness for adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 40.
Their new website focuses on the upsetting statistics that show there is no improvement in survival rates for the 15-40 age group. We can see why the foundation’s slogan is, “Mind the Gap.”
Visit the site for more information and to view a five minute video titled, Lost in the Middle.
Lance Armstrong Foundation asked Shepard Fairey to do a piece for their show Stages.
Nike Stages Show
Shepard did the piece based on a photo of Jessica Ikenberry (by Andrena Photography) that we used early on in Waiting Room. He has been a great supporter of Waiting Room with his design advice and his encouragement. Jessica has been an inspiration and a cover girl for Waiting Room.
The photos of Jessica on the site and on the banner are by photographer Dave Naz who donated the shoot.
We are lucky to have so many great people on board. New issue coming soon. Stay tuned.
Ed McMahon, a talk show icon (some of us remember him as the American Family Publishers Sweepstakes guy), died at age 86 on Tuesday June 23. According to this article on NBC New York News, he had many health problems, including bone cancer.
Farrah Fawcett a beloved Charlie’s Angel, passed away from complications of anal cancer. This article in The Examiner explains that she refused a colostomy and opted for alternative treatment overseas.
Farrah Fawcett 70s Icon
Whenever there are high profile cancer cases the public discourse on treatment and prognosis seems to ramp up. It is a sensitive topic, but there is an odd trend in celebrities seeking alternative cancer treatment. This ABC News Special reviews a few well-known cases like Steve McQueen and Fawcett. Is it because they are naturally “outsiders”? (Andy Kaufman for example) Because they don’t feel they can trust doctors? Or because they have lost hope? Or just because they have the money and resources to try something before dreadful chemo or colostomys? Whatever the case may be - this is certianly a topic for discussion.
