Tag Archives: Cancer

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You Can Help with Cancer Research

More than 1,000,000 people in the U.S. get cancer each year. Chances are, someone you know has been deeply affected by cancer. Every day, more than 400 lives are saved from cancer thanks, in large part, to cancer research. If you had a chance to help with cancer research, would you? We, in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere, now have that chance.

Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3) is a long-term study that seeks to better understand the factors (lifestyle, environmental, genetic) that cause or prevent cancer and ultimately help eliminate cancer as a major health concern for future generations.

Past long-term American Cancer Society studies have played a major role in cancer prevention. Past studies have demonstrated, among other things, the links between smoking, obesity, hormones, physical activity, and diet and cancer risk.

CPS-3 offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to be personally involved in research that will advance the American Cancer Society’s understanding of the lifestyle, behavioral, environmental, and genetic factors that cause cancer.

How can you get involved? Involvement in CPS-3 includes:

  • A short in-office visit during which you’ll read and sign a consent form, complete a survey, provide some physical measurements, and give a small blood sample (about 20-30 minutes).
  • A longer at-home questionnaire (about 45 minutes).
  • Follow-up questionnaires (which could take as little as minutes, and no more than an hour) by mail every two years (for at least 20 years).
  • Participants must be between the ages of 30 and 65 years and have no personal history of cancer (not including basal or squamous cell skin cancer) to join.

CPS-3 is one of the most important factors in the fight against cancer, and it’s one that ordinary people can help with. Although it requires a long-term commitment, the time required every other year is minimal, often less time than it would take to eat one dinner. Many people participate in CPS-3 to honor someone who has battled cancer, or for other personal reasons.

Participants will receive updated information about the study’s findings. The Bay Area represents a particularly unique opportunity for researchers because of its varied population.

Here ‘s where to participate in the CPS-3 Study in the Bay Area:

  • Alameda (July 20-August 3)
  • Marin County (July 24-August 7)
  • San Francisco (July 17-August 10)
  • San Mateo (July 24-August 10)
  • Santa Clara (July 13-August 10)

Find a CPS-Study in the U.S. near you.

I’ll be participating. Won’t you?

I was compensated for my participation in learning and sharing about CPS-3 through Women Online/The Mission List. All opinions stated here are my own.

Johanna Maaghul’s The Prodigal Family

Prodigal Family

My friend, Johanna Maaghul, just completed a book, The Prodigal Family: A Spiritual Roadmap for Family Reconciliation.

It’s a guide to transforming one’s relationships with family members and with oneself, in order to reach a place of greater forgiveness and ultimate healing. It’s about creating a new way to think about and thrive with those we love.

Here is what Johanna has to say about The Prodigal Family:

“Many of us can identify with the prodigal son’s story, following a desire to leave the life in which we were raised to seek out a reality that more closely aligns with our authenticity. We may even have been fortunate enough to find a moment of real awakening and a return to ourselves on this journey.

Ironically, however, it is once reunited with our true essence that we are often met with an unrelenting desire to return home. Suddenly we realize that our authenticity includes the family we grew up in. They were not just a reflection of our false life – they were part of who we really are all along. Yet it is this return home that is often the most difficult as we revisit relationships with family members who are far away, emotionally unavailable or even no longer with us. As we contemplate the challenges of such a return, we may want to consider the following:

What we leave on the table with our family relationships may well prove to be some of the most powerful and spiritually healing material available to us during our earthly journey – our grist for the soul mill. As with the prodigal son, the role our family has played in our life is an important one and what our family brings out in us offers us great opportunities for further personal growth. They are at the heart of our learning, essential to the ‘soulular’ transformations that we came here to embody. As we trace and even rebuild these connections, we may come to see and appreciate these individuals as members of our own spiritual Olympic team on our journey here on Earth.”

Johanna recently discussed the book on KSVY radio in Sonoma, CA, where she lives with her husband and children, ages 10, 12 and 14. “We have to find forgiveness within each other and try to heal,” Johanna said.

She added that after undergoing treatment for breast cancer two years ago, she truly realized the power of love in ones life and the role it plays in healing. In order to heal, Johanna said, “You have to have access to people who love you and find that love in yourself.” She added, “Going through the cancer and coming out on the other side has shown me that there is an element to healing beyond the medical world.”

She also talked about the example that her journey has set for her children. “The Greatest gift to children is your ability to have humility, to set an example for them so that they can go out into the world realizing that they don’t have to be perfect.” In other words, that forgiveness, to self and others, comes from within.

Johanna will be at Reader’s Books, 130 E. Napa St. in Sonoma Thursday, September 24, 7:30 pm.

You can order The Prodigal Family here or on Amazon.

johanna

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