Saturday, May 11, 2019

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #66: Surprising SUPER Star Spokeswoman!


From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today:

We’ve seen her in several favorite movies like Failure to Launch, The Blind Side, Midnight in Paris, in the big hit TV series lBig Bang Theory, as well as hearing her voice (albeit unknowingly) in Charlotte’s Web.

Actor Kathy Bates, I discovered today, is also a spokeswoman and lobbyist for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network (LE&RN.)

“Kathy Bates has successfully battled ovarian cancer since her diagnosis in 2003. In September 2012, she revealed via Twitter that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer two months earlier and had undergone a double mastectomy. In 2014, at the New York Walk for Lymphedema & Lymphatic Diseases, Bates announced via pre-recorded audio that, due to the double mastectomy, she has lymphedema in both arms. At that time, Bates became the National Spokesperson for the LE&RN and has been actively involved in lymphedema and lymphatic disease advocacy. On May 11, 2018, Bates led advocates in a Capitol Hill Lobby Day to garner Congressional support for research funding. The next day, May 12, Bates addressed supporters at the first-ever DC/VA Walk to Fight Lymphedema & Lymphatic Diseases at the Lincoln Memorial. She was awarded the 2018 WebMD Health Heroes ‘Game Changer’ award for her role in raising awareness of this chronic lymphatic disease.”

What does that mean, having a spokesperson? How can that make a difference?

In 2016, WBUR reporter Carey Goldberg interviewed Dr. Michele Berman, co-author of the book, "Reimagining Women's Cancers: The Celebrity Diagnosis Guide To Personalized Treatment and Prevention." She and her husband, Dr. Mark Boguski, run CelebrityDiagnosis.com. In that interview, after discussing the then-new Angelina Jolie diagnosis of a rare form of breast cancer and her double mastectomy, Goldberg asked,So ultimately, the moral of this Angelina effect story is...?”

 Dr. Berman said, “Celebrity stories are really double-edged swords. They can be very helpful. They can be very educational. But if the information given is just put out there on its own, without appropriate commentary by people who know what they're talking about, people can get wrong ideas. They can go looking for cures where there may not be any; they can go looking for testing where they may not need it.

“It's obvious these celebrities are not doing this to cause anyone harm. Their intentions are very good. But their story just doesn't always necessary translate to other people's stories. The message got out; people learned some more, which is a good thing. But the message didn't necessarily target the people who were most at risk.”

Honestly? I can’t add anything more to this. So there you go!


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