GoUpstate.com reports: Basketball teams aim to D up on lung cancer

By Dudley Browndudley.brown@shj.com

Next weekend, basketball teams will take the court at the T.K. Gregg Recreation Center for bragging rights. They'll also be honoring Barbara Haywood.

Haywood, the aunt of Leroy Wilks, died in December from bone marrow cancer. Wilks, the recreation center's assistant director, wanted to do something to recognize her and possibly extend her legacy beyond his family.
In January, he started sending e-mails to organizations fighting cancer and learned about the Chicago-based LUNGevity Foundation, which raises money for lung cancer research. Wilks said the foundation was the first to respond, so he decided to get involved, even though his aunt didn't have lung cancer.
A basketball tournament made sense because of the sport's popularity at the center, he said.
"Everybody else is doing walks and runs, and we decided to put our touch on it," Wilks said. "We thought we'd do basketball. It's different."

Wilks plans to have at least six teams playing in the tournament, which also will include games for kids, food, poetry readings and gospel singing. Trophies will be given to the top three finishing teams.

To read the entire article, go to: http://www.goupstate.com/article/20080701/NEWS/807010306/1106/living06&title=Basketball_teams_aim_to_D_up_on_lung_cancer#

Special place for those with cancer is tribute to woman’s late sister

Penny Cunningham’s high energy level is contagious.

When she walks into the vestibule of Candy’s Place, the nonprofit organization she founded in April 1998, she’s greeted by smiles and laughter from volunteers, staff and anyone else who happens to be at the Forty Fort location.Named after Cunningham’s sister, the late Candice Vincent-Mamary, who died of lung cancer at the age of 47, Candy’s Place is a hangout of hope, support, inspiration and relaxation for cancer patients and their families.

In addition to the prerequisite positive attitude one needs to keep a facility like Candy’s Place running, Cunningham has created what she calls a “homelike atmosphere”: meeting rooms with large, comfortable furniture, color collages on the walls, and a bright, beach-themed exercise room.

Read the complete article from the The Citizens Voice of Pennsylvania at: http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19849079&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=457355&rfi=6

North Carolina's NBC 17 reports: Minimally Invasive Lung Cancer Surgery Speeds Recovery

By: Julie Henry Health & Fitness Reporter

YOUNGSVILLE, N.C. - It started with a spot on her lung. Erin Sampson's doctor found it during a routine chest x-ray. As a lifelong smoker, the former nurse knew it was cancer.

"It's a terrible thing to be told that you've got lung cancer," she said.
But the odds were in her favor. Sampson was one of only 15 percent of patients whose cancer is localized to one area of the lung, making her a candidate for surgery.
That could have meant a large incision on her back and maybe even removal of ribs to get to the lung. But Duke thoracic surgeon Dr. Tommy D'Amico chose a minimally invasive technique called thoracoscopic lobectomy. A national leader in the procedure, he used camera operated equipment to remove the large lobe of her lung through an incision just two inches long.

"Patients go home after the minimally invasive approach and they can return to normal activity faster," he said. "If they work, they can go back to their jobs. Because they're not taking pain medicine, they can drive again. They get back to their life much sooner."
When Sampson reported for pulmonary rehab less than two weeks after her surgery, therapists and other lung cancer patients were shocked.

Read more and view the video at: http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-07-12-0008.html

Free Screenings of Why We Smoke Film Documentary at Nickelodeon

COLUMBIA (JULY 9, 2008) - There will be free screenings of Why We Smoke on Thursday, July 10 at the Nickelodeon Theatre on 937 Main Street in Columbia. Film times are at 3PM, 6PM and 8PM. The Musicians & Songwriters Guild of SC is also featuring a music video release for the song "Her Life" during the screenings.

Why We Smoke gives smokers, friends of smokers, social workers, public health representatives and medical experts a new look at America’s number one preventable cause of death. The film documents three important components of this topic: 1) smokers, 2) the experts who study them, 3) and the ways in which media and advertising has been, and is still, a major reinforcement of smoking behavior.

Why We Smoke represents a unique experiment in a college media center. Eighteen Undergraduate students at the University of South Carolina traveled to meet smokers in their hometowns and researchers in the labs where they studied tobacco and nicotine. They also interviewed media experts who revealed the tactics of advertising to induce behaviors.

Why We Smoke is funded by the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative and the University of South Carolina, Department of Art and sponsored by Healthy Carolina and The Free Times. The film is part of the Nickelodeon Theatre’s monthly “Community Film Forum” and will feature a Q&A and panel forum following the film.

View the film trailer at http://www.cas.sc.edu/art/WhyWeSmoke/trailer.html

The sooner you quit, the better it is

By Jeremy Manier - the Chicago Tribune

Both of this year's presidential candidates say they are ex-smokers, but recent research suggests that they may face increased health risks from cigarettes for years to come.Some of the damage that cigarettes inflict on the body subsides quickly, halving the risk of heart disease and stroke within five years after a smoker quits. But the effect of smoking on risks of cancer and other diseases can persist for decades, experts say.Even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), 71, who quit smoking in 1980, still faces some increased risk of cancer from smoking two packs a day for 25 years, studies suggest. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), 46, who says he has struggled to stay off cigarettes since quitting last year, may have less long-term risk because he smoked fewer cigarettes per day.

Better to quit youngA major message of the research is that people who quit at a young age are far better off than those who put it off until later. Obama and McCain, both of whom waited until their mid-40s to quit, would have been measurably better off if they had stopped a decade sooner, experts said.

The danger intensifies as smokers approach their 30th year of addiction, Pechacek said. The risk of getting lung cancer for a person who has smoked for 30 years can be six times greater than the risk for someone who has smoked for 20 years.