Saturday, September 24, 2011 - 10:00am - 12:00pm

Register Online

Folly Beach, South Carolina

Please consider attending the Kites for a Cure™, on Folly Beach, an extraordinary family event in honor of Keisha Kirkland.

Dr. Keisha Kirkland, was diagnosed with Stage 3 Lung Cancer. As a healthy, athletic, non-smoker, we were all shocked at this devastating news. Keisha and her husband, former Clemson and NFL pro-bowl linebacker, Levon Kirkland have partnered with the national non-profit organization Uniting Against Lung Cancer (UALC) and all proceeds from this event will benefit the research programs of UALC.

Kites for a Cure will gather families and friends together to enjoy a beautiful afternoon on the beach, while bringing greater lung cancer awareness to Folly Beach area.

With a $25.00 donation, you will receive a kite you can decorate and a T-shirt. Event will take place in front of Tides Folly Beach

Thousands raised for local deputy fighting cancer

Thousands raised for local deputy fighting cancer:
"Hundreds braving the hot weather, riding out to combat cancer."

by Fraendy Clervaud
Posted: 6-4-2011

Nearly three hundred people riding to combat lung cancer Saturday afternoon at Ryan's Ride.

They braved the hot temps to help raise money for Richland County Deputy Mark Ryan who's battling stage four lung cancer.

Sheriff Leon Lott invited folks from across the Midlands to take part.

Ryan is the single father of three daughters.

Organizers say the event raised a total of $10,315.

The money will help with Ryan's mounting medical bills.

"I think without today's event it would make or break him. It's vital to him getting his medical bills paid and its just great to see this event happen for him in his honor," says Master Deputy James Stone.

Participants signed up at Rays Place in Ballentine and than started to ride around Lake Murray.

The second benefit ride will take place July 23, 2011. For more information about the event call 803-309-8888.

Deputy deals with devastating cancer diagnosis

Fellow deputies holding benefit ride to help with medical bills

By NOELLE PHILLIPS - nophillips@thestate.com

For most of his life, Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Ryan has served his community.

He has been a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician. He has raised money for the American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Easter Seals and Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has helped families recover from fires that destroyed their homes.

Now, it’s time for Ryan to be on the receiving end of the help, as he battles advanced lung cancer.

Photo - TIM DOMINICK - tdominick@thestate.com

“It makes me feel good to do that kind of stuff,” Ryan said. “Being a recipient is difficult.”

To help Ryan with his medical bills, fellow deputies have organized Ryan’s Ride: A Dam Ride for Cancer on June 4 at Lake Murray.

They also are wearing black and red bracelets to show support for him and his three daughters, ages 14-20.

Ryan has been a deputy with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department for three years but is on short-term disability. He has health insurance, but the bills still pile up.

Sheriff Leon Lott said he hired Ryan because he knew a man with devotion to single-handedly raise three girls would make a good deputy.

“His heart is in the right place with what he wanted to do,” Lott said.

Monday, Ryan and his daughters agreed to talk with reporters, a tearful interview for the girls as they watched their father talk about his disease, his love for them and his fellow Richland County deputies.

“It’s been very emotional for me,” Ryan said. “I’m proud to be a part of this organization, and I’m honored they’re helping me like this.”

If you go -

Ryan’s Ride: A Dam Ride for Cancer will be June 4 around Lake Murray.

The first vehicle will leave at 11 a.m. from Ray’s Place on Dutch Fork Road in Ballentine. The ride ends at 5 p.m. at the same location with a barbecue and silent auction. Motorcycles, convertibles and other automobiles are welcome to participate.

Registration is $25 per person and includes a T-shirt.

For more information or a registration form, email ryansryde@gmail.com.


Read the entire article here.

NASCAR legend Owens prepares for the homestretch

By MIKE HEMBREE
For the Herald-Journal
GoUpstate.com

It's a long way from the dusty leavings of what once was a country road — Reidville Road — in Spartanburg to the newly rarefied air of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

A certified pioneer of stock car racing. Winner of hundreds of races as a driver. A championship car builder and team owner. An innovator in racing safety.

Owens' racing story is interwoven with that of NASCAR — with the notable exception that his story predates NASCAR's.

Read more about NASCAR legend Cotton Owens' career and both he and his wife's battles with lung cancer.

Cancer Survivors Day Celebration at Georgetown Hospital System in the Lowcountry

Cancer Survivors Day Celebration
on Sunday, June 5, 2011 from 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM
Event is free & open to all local cancer survivors and caregivers
Location - Wachesaw Conference Center, 4367 Riverwood Drive, Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

Georgetown Hospital System is hosting a First Annual Cancer Survivors Day Celebration, sponsored in part by Waccamaw Oncology, and held in conjunction with National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation, Inc.

The "Chain of Survival" themed event will feature presentations from a two-time cancer survivor, a caregiver and oncologist. Displays and information will be available on such topics as support groups, cancer rehabilitation programs, nutritional needs, transportation and more. Refreshments will be offered.

Chain Project
A unique project recognizing survivors will be displayed at the event. Names, diagnosis and length of survivorship will be written on laminated paper links to form a chain. Survivors who wish to participate in the chain project should email their information to dmagnanelli@georgetownhospitalsystem.org.

The finished chain will be displayed at Francis B. Ford Cancer Treatment Center in Georgetown after the June 5 event.

Treatment Shows Promise in Quelling a Type of Lung Cancer

Personalized Medicine Leads One Patient to Ask, "Can I go Scuba Diving?"
By Lisa Marshall of CU Medicine Today
University of Colorado School of Medicine

(May 2, 2011) The words "adenocarcinoma of the lung" required no further explanation. As a physician herself, Gene Burges knew what they meant.

"I told my husband, ‘I’ve had a really wonderful life,’" says Burges, 64, who received her grim diagnosis in April 2009. "I knew it was the end."

But nearly two years later, the dermatologist and associate professor at Medical University of South Carolina has kicked the chronic cough and night sweats, and—according to her grateful sons—has returned to her "energetic self." After watching the glowing orange beacons of cancer disappear from her scans, she went so far as to buy a new house this year.

Read more.

Lung Cancer: The Bold and Beautiful Perspective

Read comments from Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, promoting an upcoming episode of The Bold and the Beautiful airing on February 7th on CBS. The show will shed light on lung cancer and feature several famous surivors. Newmark lost his own father at a young age when he was only 13.

NASCAR vice president of corporate communications and former Darlington president Jim Hunter is a lung cancer warrior...

"Jim Hunter is back doing to the two things he loves the most — being at the race track and playing golf.

That wasn’t the case seven months ago when the former Darlington Raceway president was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer in his right lung Oct. 31."

Read more.

Young cancer survivor touches senator

from NEWS & RECORD
news-record.com

Greensboro, North Carolina
By: Doug Clark, Staff Writer

Check out the Upstate Women's Show - Featuring Lung Cancer Survivor, Keish Kirkland of WYFF 4

Keish Kirkland, weather forecaster at NBC's WYFF Channel 4, will share her story - "Living with a Life Altering Diagnosis...Lung Cancer."

See her at the Upstate Women's Show
Friday, August 28th at 11 am on the Entertainment Stage at Greenville's Carolina First Center

ASCO: The August Bulletin from Cancer.Net

Check out the August Bulletine from Cancer.Net - trusted cancer information from the American Society of Clinical Oncology

THIS MONTH ON CANCER.NET: Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau and ASCO leaders visit Wall Street, going back to school and work after cancer, where to turn for questions on clinical trials, and much more!

LA Daily News reports: Equality and better treatment sought for lung cancer patients

As an emergency physician, Dr. Michael Weitz battles illnesses to save the lives of others.

In his own personal fight with lung cancer, he is battling the stigma that his disease carries.
Weitz, who is one of the 215,000 people diagnosed each year with lung cancer, knows what others think: "You did it to yourself," the Woodland Hills man said.

But Weitz never smoked cigarettes - did nothing he knows of that would infect the delicate tissue of his lungs.

Yet even for those with lung cancer who have never smoked, the condition comes with a negative stereotype. They often are asked, "Did you smoke?"

It's a perception health advocates say needs to be shattered. Why, they ask, should state or federal funding toward the detection and treatment of lung cancer be any different than, say, for illnesses associated with obesity, alcoholism or other kinds of cancer?

"We have to get to the point of saying it doesn't matter," said Kim Norris, a Los Angeles resident who founded the Lung Cancer Foundation of America.

The foundation's goal is to raise enough funds to lead to lung cancer research and treatment. The five-year survival rates for all stages of lung cancer haven't changed in decades, a result of little progress toward finding better treatments, Norris said.

Norris and others note that research for lung cancer treatment remains "under-funded, under-researched and under-reported," because government funders view it as the "the black sheep" of cancers.

"Just because smoking is legal - and the Department of Defense once handed out cigarettes during wars - doesn't mean (those who smoked) deserve (lung cancer)."

Read more.

Men with cancer bond in support group

It was about five years ago when Walt Beigegrain flopped onto his bed, crossed his arms and felt a lump on his chest.

“What is that?” he wondered. About five weeks later, after summoning the courage to seek help, his doctor initially confirmed that yes, he had a lump, but it couldn’t be breast cancer, because men don’t get breast cancer. Another physician echoed those same thoughts.

However, tests showed a different story, and Beigegrain’s breast cancer was in Stage II, which is a treatable phase.

“I figured, ‘So what, I have breast cancer,’ ” he said. “I can deal with that.”

Beigegrain did deal with that. He had the tumor removed in surgery. He now can talk openly about his breast cancer, but he knows other men suffer alone after being diagnosed with breast cancer or any other form of the disease.

They needn’t.

For the past few years, a local all-male group, Men Against Cancer Helping Others, or MACHO, has been attracting more members than any of the numerous cancer-support groups for women organized through St. Mary’s Hospital, said Debra Hesse, coordinator of cancer survivor programs for St. Mary’s Cancer Center.

At a recent meeting, men gathered around tables at a coffee shop near the hospital and greeted one another with strong handshakes and pats to the back.

Dressed in blue jeans, button-up shirts or T-shirts and sneakers or hiking boots, the men stick to an agenda that usually includes a guest speaker and review of a book related to cancer.

But outside of those general guidelines, men said they’ve grown to feel free to be themselves, and conversations can include guys asking each other advice about their battles with similar forms of cancer or tips on how to be a better husband to a spouse with the disease.

But the reason the meetings work, they said, is because a group dynamic helps ease the stigma men feel about getting cancer.

Also the focus is neither a “prayer session, or a pity party,” they said.

“The male instinct is, if there’s a problem, I need to fix it,” said Michael Appel, the lead pharmacist who helps run meetings.

Read more.

WYFF4 of Greenville: Keisha Kirkland Extends Thanks For Support

On the last day of her treatment for stage three lung cancer, WYFF News 4 Weather Anchor Keisha Kirkland extended a video thank you to all viewers for the messages and calls of support.

Kirkland was diagnosed in November and shortly afterward underwent surgery to remove the upper right lung mass.

Go here to view what Keisha has to say in her own words.

Top NC advocate of smoking ban has lung surgery

The powerful state House Democratic leader who drove the Legislature to pass a statewide indoor smoking ban had surgery Tuesday to remove part of his lung, his legislative aide said.

House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, had surgery at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem and was recovering in the hospital's intensive care unit, his legislative assistant, Carol Bowers, said after speaking with the legislator's wife, Ellen.

Holliman had a lower lobe of his right lung removed, Bowers said. Test results will determine later whether the removed section was cancerous, Bowers said. He was in stable condition Tuesday, hospital spokeswoman Freda Springs said.

Holliman, a former smoker, previously had a cancerous tumor removed from his lung in September 2007. He also was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1999, but declared himself cured in 2005.

Holliman's surgery came a week after he was collecting plaudits from Gov. Beverly Perdue as the driving force behind legislation that will ban smoking inside restaurants and bars when it takes effect in January. Perdue called the law a turning point for the state that remains the country's largest tobacco grower.

Read more.

May's Issue of Woman's Health Magazine reports: When a Fit Body Fails You

Being active, not smoking, and eating right can go a long way toward protecting you against lung cancer. But it's not always enough.

Emily Miner gave up smoking at age 6. "I was on a camping trip with my cousins," the 39-year-old Californian recalls. As the family sat around the campfire, her uncle lit a cigar. Intrigued by the sharp scent of the smoke, Emily persuaded him to let her try it. "I took a huge puff and turned green," she says. "That was it for me."

Thirty years later, Emily was a picture of healthy living: She ran a family winery in Napa Valley with her husband, Dave, had two young daughters, and was training for a half—marathon. So the discovery that a deadly disease was ravaging her was nothing short of shocking.

It started out as back pain, a recurring twinge. When an MRI showed a tumor on her spine and spots on her lungs, Emily and her oncologist assumed it must be breast cancer that had spread, a diagnosis not unknown in young, healthy women. No one was prepared for the biopsy result, which showed that Emily had lung cancer that had metastasized to her spine.

The number of lung cancer deaths among American women has grown by 600 percent since 1950. The disease is highly fatal, killing more women each year than breast and all gynecologic cancers combined. Today, one in every 16 women will develop lung cancer. And though the increase in its incidence is most likely due to a surge in the number of women smokers, nonsmokers aren't immune, says Michael Thun, M.D., vice president emeritus and research director of epidemiology for the American Cancer Society.

"No one's risk is zero," Emily says emphatically. "Look at me."

Read more.

The Boston Herald reports: Cancer sidelines Jerry Remy, voice of Red Sox

Jerry Remy, the voice of the Red Sox [team stats] for more than 20 years, is fighting the aftereffects of lung cancer and will be out of the broadcast booth indefinitely.

Remy underwent surgery late last year, NESN revealed yesterday, and has since battled an infection and pneumonia.

On his Twitter site, Remy said he suffered his setback as he left for spring training. “In hindsight, it was a mistake to go and I am paying the price for it now,” he wrote.

He added he’ll be back in time “to take the team all the way to the 2009 World Series.”

Read more.

Routine Exam May Have Been Life-Saver for Greenville's WYFF Weathercaster Keisha Kirkland

If you're young and healthy, it's easy to think that there's not much reason to worry about your health and that an annual physical is something that other, older people have to think about, not you.

But for WYFF 4 Weathercaster Keisha Kirkland, getting that annual physical may have just saved her life.

Keisha, 36, said that she felt perfectly healthy, but because of a family history of heart disease, she had some tests run several months ago.

Her heart was fine, but doctors found that she had the beginning stages of lung cancer.
"I’ve never smoked. I’m young, you know, in shape, I exercise, eat well," Keisha told WYFF News 4's Jane Robelot. "But, hey, I’m still dealing with this."

Dr. James Stephenson of Greenville Hospital System, Keisha's surgeon, said discovering the cancer was almost as unlikely as her chances of having it.

"She decided to have a calcium scoring test to look for heart disease due to some family history," Stephenson said. "Just by chance this abnormal area in her lung was noted on that scan."

Read more.

Read Keisha Kirkland's Bio.

The New York Times: Voices of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in the country, killing more than 160,000 people a year. Yet the disease remains low on the list of cancer funding priorities. In 2006, the National Cancer Institute spent $1,518 for each new case of lung cancer and $1,630 for each lung cancer death. By comparison, the agency spent $13,452 per death on breast cancer, which takes 41,000 lives annually.

Read more.

Breath of Hope: Lung Cancer The Invisible Disease

A new lung cancer documentary has been released and has started airing on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Stations across the country.

“Breath of Hope: Lung Cancer The Invisible Disease” is an hour long documentary that profiles lung cancer survivors from across the country, including LCA-MA advocate Kevin Brumett.

Hosted by Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson of Law and Order fame, “Breath of Hope” attempts to eradicate the stigma of lung cancer by sharing the perspectives of survivors and their families as well as information from leading experts in the field.

The documentary, produced by CRW Productions in partnership with CancerCare and with input from LCA, has aired in more than 15 major markets, showing the true face of the disease in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver, Orlando, Indianapolis and Knoxville, TN.

For more information about “Breath of Hope”, or to see where and when it will air, please visit the documentary website, http://breathofhope.net/.