Posts Tagged ‘cancer’
Light the Night in honor of Richard Aponte
22 Sep 2009I got the following from fellow blogger, BFP.
Long time Latina blogger and much admired Angry Brown Butch is raising funds to fight cancer in the name of hir father, who is fighting cancer with grace and style.
Please head over to Jack’s donation page and send some love (and maybe a little cash!) their way!
My family, my partner Margarita, and I are walking on October 3, 2009, to honor my Dad, to show him our support and our love and our gratitude for his spirit, his fight, his humor, and his heart. We are walking with the hope that he might still find a treatment that will help him feel better, get healthier, and have more time to spend here with us. My dad makes friends wherever he is and in whatever state he’s in, and he’s made many friends at his cancer center. We’re walking for them and their families too. Margarita and I are also walking for her friend and coworker, Yajaira Mercedes, a young mom of three who is also battling leukemia. We’re walking for all of the other MDS, leukemia, lymphoma and cancer patients and survivors out there; for their families and friends with whom we empathize. We’re walking in the hopes that with more research, there will be more survivors who will live better, longer, happier lives.
I’m asking all of you – my friends, colleagues, acquaintences – to donate whatever amount you can spare so that we can truly honor my Dad and his fellow cancer patients and survivors. I’d also encourage folks to sign up for the national bone marrow donor registry and to donate blood if you’re able to; both are very important and potentially life-saving things to people living with MDS, leukemia, and other blood cancers.
This Summer, Stay off the Tanning Beds
11:01 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health|society|Women · 6 Comments
29 Jul 2009Summer is here and as we’re starting to don skirts and shorts, some of us (cough cough) might be a little pasty after a long, winter-like spring. And some of us (cough cough) might have briefly entertained the idea of visiting a tanning bed before showing our pale thighs on the beach. If that’s the case (and you know who you are), please take the following as yet another reason why you shouldn’t go cooking yourself in one of those things:
The ultraviolet light used in tanning beds is as carcinogenic as asbestos, arsenic, radium and cigarettes, a special committee of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has concluded. The use of sunlamps had previously been classified only as “probably carcinogenic in humans.” Moreover, the committee concluded that all types of UV radiation induce cancer, not just the UV-B that has been implicated in the past. Some tanning salons claim to use only UV-A, which was thought to be safer, but the committee said that is not the case.
The World Health Organization also says that the risk of cancer increases up to 75% when people start using tanning beds before the age of 30.
Latinas come in all shapes and colors, some lighter than others. And society pressures all women to look perfect — tanning is part of that — but the price in this case is just too high: your health. So remember, if you get the urge to toast your nalguitas artificially, just repeat to yourself again and again: as carcinogenic as asbestos.
Via / LA Times (how apropos)
Book Review : I Am Not My Breast Cancer
8:00 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Books|Health · Comments Off
1 Feb 2008
Breast cancer is an issue that has touched me and many others in the Latino community personally. A new book out hopes to appeal to all women struggling with this disease. I Am Not My Breast Cancer: Women Talk Openly About Love and Sex, Hair Loss and Weight Gain, Mothers and Daughters, and Being a Woman with Breast Cancer by Ruth Peltason is a hardcover self-help book meant to act as a friend throughout all the different stages and challenges women with breast cancer have to confront. I loved the way that the book was organized, chronologically through the stages of diagnosis, treatment, recovery, and self-discovery. I also liked that this book wasn’t about one expert talking to those struggling with breast cancer. It was the unique and diverse voices of 800 women—from every state in the nation and from continents as far away as Australia and Africa speaking their truths about how they dealt with everything from how they were told about their diagnosis to facing mortality.
Cancer rates soar in Latin America
7:18 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health|Latin America · Comments Off
23 Apr 2007
The number of cancer cases in Latin America is growing, according to information released at a recent conference in Buenos Aires that sought to examine the rise of the disease in the region. The number of current cases is shocking, and the reports from the conference reveal a grim prediction for the future. Mexico’s Milenio reports:
América Latina has a virtual epidemia of advanced cancer due to the scarce programs of control and prevention of the disease in the region and the lack of medical personnel, the [Cancer] specialists [at the conference] said on Monday.It is estimated that in Latin America there are 800,000 new cases of cancer each year, of which 450,000 end with the death of the patient, a number which could double by the year 2020 if the current state of deficiency in the prevention of and attention to the disease continues.
The Buenos Aires event was funded by monies from a Nobel prize by the Programme for Action Cancer Therapy (PACT), part of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is organizing other events in the region to bring medical specialists together in an effort to end the cycle of misinformation. PACT has also designated 40 million dollars to the creation of cancer prevention centers, the purchase of equipment and training of medical personnel in Latin America.
Via / Milenio
Freddy Fender ill, but out of hospital
6:23 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Music · 1 Comment
12 Oct 2006
Freddy Fender, one of the first singers of Mexican-American origin to gain national fame and score a number one hit, is extremely ill from blood poisoning but has been released from the hospital, according to AP:
Freddy Fender has been discharged from a hospital and was resting at his South Texas home Thursday, but family and friends said the Grammy-winning musician remained gravely ill.Fender, 69, had been getting treatment for cancer in Oklahoma but was transferred to a hospital in San Antonio last week because of a blood infection.
“He’s not doing too good,” said his wife, Vangie Huerta. “It’s kind of like — we just got back yesterday and it’s kind of breaking us.”
Ron Rogers, who has acted as a spokesman for Fender, said the musician had talked about making a public statement but hadn’t been able to yet.
“Of course he’s ill, gravely ill, and he’s at home resting,” he said.
Fender, born Baldemar Huerta, grew up as a migrant farm worker in South Texas, and reached the height of his fame in the mid-70s with a number one hit on the country charts: Before the Next Teardrop Falls. Before falling ill with blood infection, he was suffering from incurable cancer.
Via / Yahoo! Entertainment
Soraya succumbs to cancer at 37
7:46 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Health · Comments Off
10 May 2006
Thanks to a tip from one of our readers (thanks, Kathy) we were alerted to the sad passing of the beautiful and talented Latina singer Soraya.
Soraya, of Colombian descent, was not only an amazing singer songwriter, but she also became a powerful voice for the message of prevention of breast cancer among Latinas, lending her support to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. AP reported on her death in Spanish today:
The singer-songwriter, born on may 10 1969 in New York to Colombian parents, and who had been diagnosed with cancer six years ago, was about to celebrate her first decade of her music career.Soraya brought the 12 stringed guitar known as “tiple” to the United Stated and sang songs both in Spanish and English.
Soraya even spoke about the importance of prevention and embracing life as she was in the clutches of her illness, posting a letter to her fans on her web site which sends a powerful message, especially as we contemplate her death:
I am confident that my existence will leave a mark on your lives, and will benefit the future of many women, and that the light of my own life will illuminate that of many other families’, reads the letter on her web site.`I am not losing this battle today because I know that my struggle has not been in vain, but that it will help win a larger battle, that of early detection and prevention of this terrible illness.’
`Now it’s your turn to continue with our mission’
I hope with all of my heart that I can transmit to you my love of life and the you be a channel by which many people may receive this message which could save their lives.’
VL originally wrote about Soraya’s struggle with cancer back in September.
Related:
Listen to Soraya’s interview with NPR in 2002
Soraya’s web site (currently down)
Via / Frontera.info
The the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ) have joined forces to educate Spanish speaking Latinas with early stage breast cancer as to what their treatment options are. The brochure also features profiles of breast cancer survivors that serve as an example of hope in the fight against cancer in the Latino community.
An example of some of the useful information available in the brochure:
Research shows that women with early-stage breast cancer who have breast-sparing surgery (surgery that
takes out the cancer and leaves most of the breast)
along with radiation therapy live as long as those who
have a mastectomy (surgery that removes the whole
breast).
The brochure is available online as a PDF file in Spanish and in English.
Although VL hit on Breast Cancer Awareness a little while ago, it’s time to do so again. Still in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness month, this Friday, October 21, is National Mammography Day.
I would like to take this moment to encourage our female readers to make that appointment this week. If you are in need of free/low cost services, check the NBCCEDP site.
As we mentioned in our previous post, the Latino community is way behind on awareness, so there is a lot of catching up to do.
Ways you can help: donate time or money to the cause, participate in an event such as Race for the Cure, and encourage friends and family members to perform self-exams and get mammographies.
Breast Cancer Resources:
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
National Cancer Institute
Susan G. Komen Foundation
Y-Me
Hola!
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