Cancer: Emperor of Maladies – local hope (part 1)

comments by Sue Hermann, Marcia Donziger, Stacy Fischer

Rocky Mountain PBS hosted a preview screening of Ken Burns-produced film,  “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies,” a three part documentary based on the book by Siddhartha Mukherjee, airing March 30-April 1, 2015. At the event, Steve Chavis from the KUVO morning show “First Take with Lando and Chavis” captured a few local stories of hope.

Included in this audio feature above: Sue Hermann, chair of the American Cancer Society – Denver, and Marcia Donziger, a cancer survivor who founded MyLifeline.org, which provides web-based tools for cancer patients.  Donziger is herself a cancer survivor.  “My friends wanted to help me. I did not know how to organize it…So I developed a tool after my treatment ended.”  The web services offer patients and their families a way to organize their schedule for chemotherapy and radiation appointments, make updates on progress, as well as create their own fundraisers to help with costs that insurance does not cover.  “It was created by cancer survivors for cancer patients.”

Also on this feature is Stacy Fischer, M.D., a palliative care clinician and researcher at University of Colorado Denver.  ”It’s really important to incorporate not only the work that’s going on in prevention and treatment but also in supportive care and survivorship,” said Fischer.

“Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies” will air on Rocky Mountain PBS over three nights, March 30, 31, and April 1 at 8 p.m. MDT.

For more information or to post an on line dedication to a loved one please visit www.rmpbs.org/cancerhope. 

(Music on this feature was the title track from the Tigran Mamasyan Trio CD New Era.)