Bush travels to Zambia, Botswana to raise cancer awareness

(CNN) — Former President George W. Bush is visiting Zambia to promote a health initiative that focuses on cervical and breast cancer prevention and treatment.

In the city of Kabwe, Bush worked with local residents Saturday to refurbish a clinic used to screen, diagnose and treat cervical cancer.

Bush heads to the capital of Lusaka, where he will designate a cancer center at a university teaching hospital and meet with governmental and health care leaders.

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He will then travel to Botswana to launch a similar program aimed at combating cancer.

The trip to both nations — which ends Thursday — is part of the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon initiative spearheaded by his foundation that seeks to expand cervical and breast cancer screening, and treatment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cancer in Africa is an emerging global concern. The continent has an acute shortage of experts such as oncologists, and lacks infrastructure and data to combat the disease, exacerbating the concern.

Bush and former first lady Laura Bush have previously visited the continent as part of his foundation’s health initiative.

In a 2008 trip to Tanzania, they highlighted U.S. initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and poverty during a trip to five African nations that included Rwanda and Benin.

“Different people may have different views about you and your administration and your legacy,” Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said at the time. “You, Mr. President, and your administration, have been good friends of our country and have been good friends of Africa.”

As president, Bush introduced an emergency AIDS program that saved millions of lives in Africa by providing antiretroviral drugs.

Analysts have said that his health initiatives offer a chance to make the case that his legacy on foreign policy should not be judged on the Iraq war alone.

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Peavy makes pitch to aid cancer research

DENVER — Former Padres pitcher Jake Peavy, now with the White Sox, has announced he will contribute $100 for every strikeout in every Major League Baseball game on Saturday towards pancreatic cancer research, which killed his friend and mentor, Darrel Akerfelds.

Akerfelds lost his 19-month battle with pancreatic cancer last Sunday.

“I do hope there are a lot of strikeouts in baseball today,” said Peavy, who started on Saturday against the New York Yankees.

Peavy previously raised more than $52,000 to aid pancreatic cancer research, in Akerfelds’ honor.

“Ak knew what the percentages were and he just kept fighting with the thought that today could be the day a cure is found,” Peavy said in a statement. “He battled with so much courage and heart, and I will continue to fight until there is an end to all cancer.”

Padres decide to take pressure off Hundley

DENVER — A new $9 million contract might have been the cause of Nick Hundley’s struggles.

“There’s a lot of factors, and I wouldn’t exclude that one,” San Diego manager Buddy Black said on Saturday, one day after the 28-year-old catcher was optioned to Triple-A Tucson. “He’d probably say [it wasn't], but there’s something to that. He takes his responsibility strongly.”

Hundley, who signed a three-year deal in the offseason with a club option for 2015, was hitting .166 (32-for-193) with 22 RBIs. However, Hundely had thrown out a Major League-leading 19 would-be base stealers.

Replacing Hundley on the 25-man roster is Yasmani Grandal, who started Saturday’s game against the Rockies. Black expects Hundley’s time in the Minors to be beneficial.

“We felt it was time to give Nick a breather from the pressure that he’s put on himself to perform,” Black said. “He’s a guy that takes his performance, his contributions, as strong as anybody. When things weren’t going his way, things were building up and effecting his performance. So it’s a classic case of taking one step back to take two forward.”

Worth noting

• Jeremy Hermida began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tucson on Friday night and went 1-for-2, starting the game in right field. Hermida (strained left adductor) was placed on the 15-day disabled list April 27 and was extended to the 60-day DL last Monday.

• With pitcher Edinson Volquez starting and Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal in the lineup, Saturday marked the first time three of the four players acquired from Cincinnati in the offseason started the same game. Brad Boxberger, the fourth player, is currently with Triple-A Tucscon, but has a 1.42 ERA in five relief appearances with the Padres this season.

Bollywood, fashion world unite against cervical cancer

New Delhi, July 1 — A bevy of popular names from the world of fashion and Bollywood came together Saturday night to create awareness on cervical cancer.

Actors Kunal Kapoor and Yuvika Chaudhary, singer Shibani Kashyap and Miss India Earth Hasleen Kaur walked the runway to show their support for the cause.

Ace fashion designers Namrata Joshipura, Anju Modi and Poonam Bhagat showcased varied collections, which ranged from white angelic anarkali suits to glittering black pants.

“It’s very important that people are coming out and creating such awareness about cervical cancer because it’s a cancer that kills one woman every seven minutes. It is the only cancer that can be prevented. There is a vaccination for it,” Kunal Kapoor told IANS.

“We are proud to launch ‘Guard Your Angel’, an initiative to create awareness on cervical cancer and its preventive options. I don’t think many people are aware of that. I think not only women but men should also come forward for the cause. We all have mothers, sisters, wives and girlfriends who we should take care of,” said K.G. Ananthakrishnan, managing director of MSD Pharmaceuticals India.

Shibani Kashyap, who sang a few verses of the song she had created to support the cause, said there should be campaigns and ads for the not-so-tech-savvy women, so that they are also informed about the cancer.

“There needs to be more campaigns on television. Women who are housewives or the ones who do not surf the net, they do watch television,” she said.

Femina Miss India Earth 2011 Hasleen Kaur said women should not be bogged down by responsibilities and should take care of themselves.

“I think daughters as well as mothers who have responsibilities should not be bogged down by the responsibilities. Symptoms are something that you may not get to know for a long time. You should take an action and forcefully and not just plain talking,” Kaur said.

IANS

This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.

Original article © IANS / Daily News 2012

Shift Work Again Linked With Breast Cancer Risk

Yet another study is linking night shift work with cancer.

French researchers from the Centre for research in Epidemiology and Population Health have have found that women who work the night shift have a 30 percent higher risk of breast cancer.

The risk was especially clear among women who did shift work for four years, as well as in those who only worked the night shift for three or fewer nights a week (since that meant their daily rhythms were disturbed more often).

The International Journal of Cancer study examined occupations of 1,200 women who developed breast cancer over a three-year period, and compared them with those of 1,300 other women. Of all the women, 11 percent worked nights at least once in their careers.

“Our work has corroborated the results of previous studies and poses the problem of taking night work into consideration in public health management, especially since the number of women working atypical hours is on the increase,” study researcher Pascal Guenel said in a statement.

Last month, a study in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine also showed a link between shift work in women and breast cancer risk. HealthDay reported that breast cancer risk was highest among female shift workers who said that they are “morning people” instead of “night” people; a possible reason for this is the disruption of the body clock.

The Toronto Sun reported that the results of this study confirm the findings of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which has a list of items and habits that may cause cancer. The IARC considers shift work “possibly carcinogenic.”

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Mom Who Lost Custody Because of Cancer Spent...

The North Carolina mother who lost custody of her children because she had Stage 4 breast cancer died this week at her parents’ home in Pennsylvania.

Alaina Giordano, 38, was able to spend her final weeks with her children thanks to an emergency motion her lawyer filed in Illinois family court, according to the Giordano’s Facebook page, which announced her death on Friday.

The ABCNews Medical Unit and ABC11 in Raleigh, N.C., interviewed Giordano shortly after she lost her custody battle and once she knew the cancer had metastasized to her bones. She was getting treatment in Durham, where she didn’t have a job, but her husband moved the children, then 5 and 11, to Chicago.

“It makes no sense to take them away from me because you don’t know how long I’m going to live,” Giordano told ABCNews in 2011. “Everybody dies and none of us knows when. Some of us have a diagnosis of cancer, or diabetes, or asthma. This is a particularly dangerous ruling to base a custody case on a diagnosis.”

The judge disagreed because “children who have a parent with cancer need more contact with the non-ill parent,” according to ABCNews in 2011.

She launched a Facebook page in April last year, generating media attention and the donations she needed to visit her children in Chicago, according to friend Peter Kaufmann’s message to supporters on the social media site. She even camped out at Facebook supporters’ homes when she visited her children in Chicago until she was able to afford an apartment there.

“Alaina endured a transient lifestyle that could have truly taken a toll on her health,” Kaufmann said. “But the power of being near her children and relishing every last moment of her limited time with them gave her strength and optimism.”

When it became clear Giordano’s death was imminent and she would need to spend her remaining weeks in Pennsylvania at her parents’ home for hospice care, her lawyer’s initial attempt to bring her children to her failed. An emergency motion worked, however, and they stayed with their mother and grandparents in Pennsylvania.

Giordano died on Sunday and was buried on Friday.

“She never complained once about her circumstances, and faced her mortality with unwavering bravery,” Kaufmann said. “Alaina taught me so much about selflessness, in the truest sense of the word — as nothing she did was ever about HER — but all about her children.”

Meet Your Shadow

The shadow is part of us that we're ashamed of, that we don't want people to know about. It's that part of us that we hide away in the closet. The shadow is dark, it's secretive, it's primitive, it's shrouded in mythology. And if we ignore the shadow, it tends to say, "Well, I'm going to embarrass you. I want you to notice me."

When you exhibit so-called positive and negative qualities, you are not flawed; you are complete. When you are comfortable with your shadow, when you embrace your shadow because this is how the infinite consciousness made you, then you are attractive beyond measure, and your life is an adventure. You are natural when you are comfortable with your ambiguity, and nothing is more beautiful than being natural. When you are comfortable with your body your strengths and weaknesses, you radiate simple, unaffected humanity.

The whole of creation is contrast, tension, divine discontent. If there were only truth, goodness, harmony and beauty, the universe would expand and disappear. There has to be something to hold it back. If there were only the destructive inertial forces, then the universe would rapidly burn itself up into the heat death of absolute zero. It would collapse into a black hole and disappear. So there's both. There's the play between both; otherwise this world would not exist.

Annual event celebrates cancer survivors, honors victims

COLUMBUS — Survivors had a reason to celebrate as they walked the opening lap of the Platte County Relay For Life.

They were being recognized for their courage and fight against cancer. Dozens of people who won the battle against the disease were given purple T-shirts and asked to kick off the awareness-raising event Friday night by taking the first lap around the track at Lakeview High School.

Survivors, caregivers and others were welcomed to take part the 12-hour event. The evening was spent remembering those who have passed due to cancer, as well as provide hope to those who are undergoing treatment or have survived the disease.

Teams made up of families, friends and co-workers stayed at the event overnight, and team members were to walk around the track. The continuous walking represents the constant battle cancer patients go through.

The teams also raised funds for the event. This year the 45 teams collected $176,723, which was about $24,000 short of the goal.

Despite not reaching the goal, organizers were happy with the turn out.

"Everybody is together here for the same reason," said Heidi Kleavemann, a committee member.

Like many people there, Kleavemann has had multiple people in her family stricken with cancer. Her father-in-law in a cancer survivor, and her dad died eight years ago from the disease.

The event brings up strong emotions in the participants, especially during the lighting of the luminarias. The luminarias are placed around the track and in the bleachers. Each bag represents a person who has been touched by cancer. At dusk, the luminarias are lit.

Melody Boydston, of Creston, had been to several Relay events, but not to the one in Platte County. She was at the event for herself and in memory of her mother and brother.

Boydston is a 19-year ovarian cancer survivor. Her mom died of cancer two weeks before she herself was diagnosed. Her brother passed from brain cancer in 2008.

"This event is awesome. It's amazing. It brings people together," Boydston said.

Getting support from others is what helped her in her battle against cancer. She said others who have been diagnosed need to reach out to their families and friends to make it through.

"My family was my rock," she said.

Leisa Carnaham, of Columbus, was attending her first Platte County Relay, too. As a 12-year survivor of cervical and uterine cancer, she was one of the survivors walking in the opening lap.

She has a long history of cancer in her family. Four of her sisters are cancer survivors, and another sister died because of it before Carnaham was born. Due to that, she is making it a point to educate her own daughter on the importance of medical checkups and early detection.

She advises those who are going through treatment to continue to keep a positive attitude.

"What helped me is my faith. So whatever faith you are, draw on that, your family and the American Cancer Society," Carnaham said.