John Trudell: Spoken Word Tour for women and cancer

John Trudell: Spoken Word Tour for women and cancer

Special to News From Indian Country 4-08

"How high does the body count have to go before we call this an epidemic?" asked John Trudell. "In a coherent thinking society, we would recognize there is a cancer epidemic in this country. In a clear thinking society, we would take responsibility rather than remain in denial about the seriousness of this issue"

Willie Nelson, Jackson Browne, John Trudell have initiated Benefit Tours in different regions of the United States to raise awareness about Ovarian cancer and encourage lawmakers to provide free health care for all women and children. John Trudell will be doing a Spoken Word Performance in Portland, Oregon, May 2nd, 7:30 pm at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th, to support the Cedars-Sinai Women's Cancer Research Institute.

Today, in the United States, one woman will be diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer every seven minutes. That's over 200 women who will be diagnosed just today and close to 80,000 women this year. In sum, these diseases will kill 30,000 women this year alone.

If detected early, a majority of gynecologic cancers can be cured," said Dr. Beth Karlan, an internationally recognized gynecologic cancer surgeon and research scientist, and Director of WCRI. "Most women, however, are unfamiliar with the symptoms. Every effort to educate women and their loved ones about the signs and symptoms of gynecologic cancers will help save women's lives," she advised.

One unique aspect of the Give Love, Give Life Concert Tours are that it features men taking a stand for women. In fact, solely having male artists perform was intentional. Each of the artists on the bill has long been engaged in peace, environmental and social justice issues, but this is the first time they have collaborated on a show focused on women's health and women's cancers. "Give Love, Give Life is oriented toward recognizing, acknowledging and respecting the feminine part of life," explained Trudell, "The women in our lives – grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, aunts, nieces and cousins – are what make us whole as human beings. It's time to do something good for the women," he commented.

The Give Love, Give Life benefit is part of a growing movement to build awareness and educate the public about women's health issues in general, and ovarian and gynecologic cancers specifically. Just this past year, a coalition of women's health groups succeeded in securing signage of legislation called 'Johanna's Law', a bill to fund education and outreach about the symptoms of gynecologic cancer.


Dr. Karlan and WCRI were integral to passing the legislation and see the Give Love, Give Life benefit concerts as part of the same effort. The net proceeds from the shows will benefit the Cedars-Sinai Women's Cancer Research Institute, a multidisciplinary program working to end cancer as a threat to women through research, education, early detection and prevention.

Under the leadership of Dr. Beth Karlan, WCRI works side by side with Cedars-Sinai's patient care programs and services to integrate innovative research across a wide spectrum of programs devoted to preventing, diagnosing and treating women's cancers. For more information or to schedule interviews,contact L. LaBar: 512/557-1600
sungmanitu@yahoo.com

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