The
cafeteria in the lower level of John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital was transformed to
a party room June 5 to celebrate cancer survivors.
There was
food galore, a band played, a gospel choir sang, officials shared their stories
of how cancer had touched their families and dozens of people battling various
forms of cancer strutted down a short red carpet.
The Cook
County Health and Hospitals System hosted the event as part of National Cancer
Survivors Day.
Clovis
Frazier was among the survivors being celebrated and before the event, she got
her wig trimmed and shaped up by salon owner and hair stylist Gino Bavaro.
Frazier was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 and, she told the Defender,
age and medical treatment for the cancer caused her own hair to fall out.
It was
her first year participating in the program, and she attended at the urging of
her oncologists. Sunday was one of the better days for the 68-year-old who is
among the patients - usually underinsured or uninsured – who go to the West Side
hospital to receive cancer treatment.
“You have
really bad days, some good ones,” Frazier said with a smile, as Bavaro helped
to glam her up. Frazier's husband also has cancer.
HHS
officials said that many patients go to Stroger for cancer treatment at later
stages of their cancer, compare to other cancer patients with private
insurance. The hospital, named for the late Cook County Board of Commissioners
President John H. Stroger Jr., boasts state-of-the-art equipment, opportunities
to participate in progressive clinical trials and dedicated cancer experts,
hoped to help its patients beat the mortality odds.
But that
may not be good enough, Terry Mason, M.D., CEO of HHS, said at the event.
He lost
his own mother to cancer and could relate to many of the family members at the
event, he said. But even as he praised the doctors and other HHS medical
providers and caretakers, he explained that the county health system “will do
better.”
Cook
County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle gave remarks as well,
having lost a parent to cancer.
HHS
reported that “cancer disparity is a real issue in this country, with data
showing that racial and ethnic minorities and the medically underserved are
more likely to develop cancer and die from it than the general U.S.
population.”
Copyright
2011 Chicago Defender
