September 2009 Archives

A free prostate cancer workshop and non-invasive screening is offered on Saturday, October 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the E.C. Tyree Health and Dental Clinic at St. Mark United Methodist Church at 1525 North Lorraine in Wichita, Kan. Participants will be eligible to win free tickets to the NBA preseason game played on October 13 between the Orlando Magic and New Orleans Hornets at Wichita State University. For more information about the screening, call 316-616-6500. The screening is sponsored by the E.C. Tyree Health and Dental Clinic, St. Mark United Methodist Church, Via Christi Cancer Center, Sports Week Event, AMS Labs, and the American Cancer Society.

 

Barry Waggoner of St. Charles traveled with a team of Missouri cancer advocates to Washington DC and met Tuesday with Sen. Claire McCaskill. The Missourians thanked Sen. McCaskill for her co-sponsorship of a federal law to regulate tobacco products and discussed the current health care reform debate and its importance to cancer patients and their families.

 

The Missouri cancer advocates recognized Sen. McCaskill with the American Cancer Society's "Cancer Prevention Champion" Award for her leadership in the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

 

"Without Senator McCaskill's co-sponsorship, this historic legislation would have been more difficult to pass. We've been working on this bill for nearly ten years and Senator McCaskill helped seal the final passage," said Barry Waggoner, American Cancer Society advocacy volunteer. "Cancer advocates in Missouri commend her leadership on this issue."

 

Sen. McCaskill received the award for her support of historic legislation authorizing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate the manufacture, sale and marketing of tobacco products. Signed by the President on June 22, the new law will require basic regulatory actions such as ingredient disclosure and sales and marketing restrictions.

 

Until now, tobacco has been virtually the only unregulated consumable product in the United States. The new law will ban candy and fruit flavored cigarettes, stop the marketing of tobacco products to children, require tobacco companies to list the ingredients in their products, and mandate larger and more effective warning labels.

 

Waggoner and the Missouri advocates also discussed with Sen. McCaskill the critical need for health care reform. Many cancer patients become too ill to work and lose both their jobs and their health insurance. A recent poll showed that one in three people diagnosed with cancer have delayed care. One in five have used all or most of their savings for health care costs.

 

"Health care reform is a life or death matter for thousands of cancer patients," said Waggoner. "Once someone has been diagnosed with cancer, they are branded with a pre-existing condition and are turned away by health insurers. They lose their jobs, lose their health insurance, and ultimately lose their lives. This shouldn't happen in America."

 

ACS CAN is the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate organization of the American Cancer Society, dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage lawmakers, candidates and government officials to support laws and policies that will make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer. For more information, visit www.acscan.org.

AUSTIN, Texas--September 15, 2009--The American Cancer Society, High Plains Division, Inc., announced the winners today of its annual media awards program for excellence in cancer journalism, according to vice-president of the Division Communications Department, Jackie Bayly-Bryant.

The Media Awards officially recognize journalists in the Society's High Plains Division (Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas) for excellent work in covering cancer-related stories. "Through these stories, the public have learned more about cancer research, treatment, early detection, how to get help, and what it feels like to be a cancer survivor," said Bayly-Bryant.

This year, 16 winners were selected by a team of 27 judges. Judges were recruited from media outlets and public relations agencies to carefully rate the entries for accuracy, originality, and effectiveness.


The 2008 Media Awards Winners

"Our judges painstakingly selected the very best efforts by journalists who entered the competition. Our award winners can be proud that their work represents the most outstanding print and broadcast cancer stories throughout our Division," said Bayly-Bryant.

Submissions included news and feature stories from radio, television, newspaper, and magazine journalists. The 16 winners will be recognized at a virtual ceremony on November 11.

MAGAZINE

Katy Magazine
Katy, Texas

NEWSPAPER

Small Market Daily Feature
Edie Ross, The Hutchinson News
Hutchinson, Kansas


Small Market Daily News
James Coburn, The Edmond Sun
Edmond, Oklahoma

Small Market Daily News
Karrey Britt, Lawrence Journal-World
Lawrence, Kansas

Small Market Daily Relay For Life
Shanna Sissom, Midland Reporter-Telegram
Midland, Texas

Medium Market Daily Feature
Mary Ann Roser, Austin American-Statesman
Austin, Texas

Big Market Daily Feature
Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis, Missouri

Big Market Daily Feature
Ken Raymond, The Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Weekly Feature
Editorial Department, Ladue News
St. Louis, Missouri

Weekly Relay For Life
Kathleen Holton, Alvin Sun
Alvin, Texas

Special Promotion: News/Feature/Series
Staff, The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal


TELEVISION

Small Market Television Feature
Amanda Lanum, WIBW-TV
Topeka, Kansas

Small Market Television News
Christie Bett, KOLN/KGIN-TV
Lincoln, Nebraska

Medium Market Television Feature
Taylor Wilson, KPTM-TV
Omaha, Nebraska

Big Market Television Feature
Wendy Rigby, KENS-TV
San Antonio, Texas

Big Market Television News
Wendy Rigby, KENS-TV
San Antonio, Texas

For questions or information about the media awards program, contact Greg Cameron at 512-919-1916, or greg.cameron@cancer.org.

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The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation's largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing about $3.4 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us any time, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.

American Cancer Society Research Program grantees Brian Druker, M.D., of Oregon Health & Science University and Charles Sawyers, M.D., of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, have been awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in medicine, the Lasker Award. The Lasker Awards recognize the contributions of scientists, physicians and public servants internationally working to cure, treat, and prevent disease. The Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award was awarded to Drs. Druker and Sawyers and to Nicholas B. Lydon, Ph.D., formerly of Novartis, for their work on Gleevec for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Gleevec turned a once-fatal cancer into a manageable condition. A description of the award from the Lasker Foundation can be found here.

More than 150 individual corporate volunteers, sponsors and media partners were recognized today at a luncheon hosted by the American Cancer Society at the Ramada Inn in downtown Topeka.

"Volunteers are the backbone of our organization," explains Stephanie Weiter, Society regional vice president in Kansas. "We are truly fortunate to have so many generous corporations who support the fight against cancer by allowing and encouraging their staff to volunteer for the American Cancer Society throughout the year."

Thirty-four different corporations were thanked for providing volunteers as well as eight media partners for supporting the Society with public service announcements and news coverage.

Awards were presented in the following categories:

• Overall Volunteers of the Year - "The Hallmark Ladies," a group from Hallmark Cards who volunteered more than 1,200 hours from November 2008 through July 2009; Mary Flanagan, Lesa Stanwix, Marilyn Foresman, Virginia Munoz, Gail Early, Linda Manuel, Deb Gomez, Marsha Pasley, Bernita Manos, Denise Flowers, Oneta Lindbloom and Todd Pigg.
• Outstanding Gala Volunteer - Greg Winkler, Educational Credit Union
• Outstanding Specialty Party Volunteer - Ashley Charest, Woodsland Media
• Outstanding Relay For Life Volunteer - Lisa Stratton, Kansas Gas Service
• Outstanding Health Initiatives Volunteer - Harvey Chebo, Midwest Tech

 For information about becoming a Society volunteer, please call the Topeka office at 785-273-4462. For cancer information anytime, call toll free 800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.

 

Pictured above: Amy Kralicek and Stacie Schroeder, American Cancer Society staff (far left), presented Hallmark Card volunteers Linda Manuel, Gail Early, Virginia Munoz, Mary Flanagan, Lesa Stanwix and Marilyn Foresman with the Outstanding Corporate Volunteers of the Year Award at the Corporate Volunteer Recognition Luncheon in Topeka, Kan., on Sept. 10, 2009.

Patti Clapp, longtime volunteer and Chairwoman of the American Cancer Society North Texas Region Executive Management Board, has been elected to the High Plains Division, Inc. Board of Directors.

 

The Division board includes 30 members from the Division states of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Hawaii. Clapp is one of four new members elected to the Board this year. Her two-year term began September 1.

 

"Serving on the High Plains Division Board will provide me the opportunity to continue to support the American Cancer Society," said Clapp. "As an almost 11-year survivor of Stage-3-colon cancer, I understand the importance of cancer education and awareness for our communities, as well as the impact the Society has had through its support of cancer research." 

 

Clapp, a University of Oklahoma alumna, brings more than 40 years of community affairs experience, and a strong background in training and management. She is Vice President of Talent, Education and Workforce Development for the Dallas Regional Chamber, where she has worked for almost 25 years.

 

Click here for press release.

The American Cancer Society, High Plains Division, recently announced the 2009-2010 Childhood Cancer Survivor Scholarship recipients. Across six states, 201 chidlhood cancer survivors were awarded a scholarship. These youth are from 148 cities in 102 counties and are attending 105 schools.

 

Childhood Cancer Survivor Scholarships are awarded to students with a history of childhood cancer. This award gives young cancer survivors the opportunity to pursue an undergraduate degree from an accredited university, college, vocational or trade school.

 

One of the recipients is Amanda Klohman, of Chesterfield, MO, who has received the scholarship two years in a row. She says the scholarship makes school less stressful and allows her to focus more on school and not the financial strains. She is a junior at University of Missouri-Columbia majoring in journalism, and is a three-year survivor of cystic teratomas of the ovaries.

 

"When I first received the news, I was shocked, but I immediately took action because I wanted to do a lot," said Amanda. "Being so young, it gave me a different perspective. [The cancer] made me well rounded."

 

The American Cancer Society's Relay For Life events are the major source of these scholarship funds. While nothing can compensate for the hardships of cancer, the American Cancer Society's Childhood Cancer Survivor Scholarship Program gives young people a head start when beginning this important time in their lives.

 

The American Cancer Society created the scholarship program in 2002 and has since awarded 539 students nearly $1,940,909. For the 2009 - 2010 academic year the High Plains Division (consisting of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Hawaii) is awarding 201 youth scholarships, totaling $200,500.

 

High Plains Division residents, who are U.S. citizens under the age of 25, who have had a diagnosis of cancer before age 21, are eligible to apply. The American Cancer Society is confident these scholarships will assist the students in achieving their highest academic potential and personal career dreams.

 

Tremendous progress has been made in the treatments of childhood cancers. For all childhood cancers combined, 5-year relative survival has improved over the past 30 years, from less than 50 percent before the 1970s to nearly 80 percent today, due to new and improved treatments. For more information about childhood cancers or if you have been recently diagnosed with cancer, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.

 

Media inquiries should be directed to the local Communications Director. To find your contact, call (800) 227-2345 or visit http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_1_Media_Contacts.asp and select your state.