Search results matching tags 'Cancer' and 'daughter'

Dying Dad Gets Extra Time Thanks to Mystery Donor

JeanneSager — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:27:00 GMT

Finally, a bit of news that reminds us hedge fund managers are people too (the NASDAQ be darned). A mystery manager here in the states has ponied up the cash to fund the cancer treatments for a British father denied care by that country's National Health System.

Jack Rosser knows he will die, but thanks to the mystery donor, he may have as much as several extra years to spend with his toddler daughter.

OK, commence weeping. I know I shed a tear or two at this story, not least because the Rosser's diagnosis with an aggressive cancer of his kidneys came just days after little Emma was born. The Rossers should have been celebrating new life; but they were staring death in the eyes.

Rosser was told he probably had two years left, unless he began treatments with Sutent, a cancer drug which costs three thousand pounds a month (currently about $4,450). The medicine would give him extra time, but it couldn't save his life. It wasn't enough of a benefit for the British National Health System. The government told Rosser the treatment was off the table. Attempts to get him into a clinical trial were out too - he was told his cancer wasn't advanced enough. He'd have to accept death . . . and leaving his wife and daughter sooner rather than later.

When his story was highlighted by a group working to fight for cancer patients denied life-lengthening care (and highlighted by Bloomberg late last month), the man identified only as a hedge fund manager from the states stepped forward. He'll pay for the fifty-seven-year-old Rosser's treatments, he said, as long as he needs them.

"It's been such a fight and all I can say is thank you. He's given my daughter the opportunity to get to know her dad," Jenny Rosser told Sky News this week.

Perhaps someone could remind the National Health System - and nasty American HMOs - that sometimes the decisions they're making aren't about that one patient, but the lives around them too. A few extra months for a little girl to get to know her father can make a world of difference in her life.

Oh, and while you're at it, could someone pass me a Kleenex?

Image: Sky News

They Say: Poor Kids, Rich Kids Think Differently

Man Forced to Pay Child Support for Another Man's Child

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Father and Daughter Battle Breast Cancer Together

JeanneSager — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:01:00 GMT

Usually the doc wants to know about mom and grandma when they ask for any history of breast cancer in the family. But men can get breast cancer too - a statistic that's rare, but not rare enough for Arnaldo Silva. The 58-year-old New Yorker found a lump in late 2006. A few months later, his daughter got the news that she, too, had breast cancer.

Vanessa Silva and her dad went through masectomies together after a blood test showed he had the breast cancer "gene." That's when Vanessa went for her own tests, which came back positive. They went through chemotherapy together. In late 2007, Vanessa, 32, was finished with treatment and declared "in remission." Her father got similar news in early 2008.

Like most of the nearly 1,800 men diagnosed with breast cancer every year, Arnaldo didn't think he could get breast cancer - because he doesn't have breasts. "That's the way I took it, I have no breasts," he told ABC News. But as one popular 2005 book reminded us, men have nipples . . . and that means they have breasts too.

And as the ABC News doc points out, man boobs have nothing to do with it (although if you have them, we have one solution). "It doesn't matter how skinny you are. It doesn't matter how heavy you are," Dr. Sharon Rosenbaum Smith said. "All men have breast tissue and can develop a breast cancer."

So Dads, it's time to join your partners in feeling yourself up once a month. Do it for your daughters. And your sons.

Image: ABC News

What Won't Men Do With a Diaper?

Students Suspended for Hair Dyed Pink in Honor of School Nurse's Battle with Breast Cancer

Losing Your Hair? Blame Mom . . . and Dad

Saggy Mom Boobs Get a Lift! Carry It Off with the Cleavage Caddy

Christy with Grace

Whit — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:17:00 GMT

Model Christy Turlington and her daughter Grace attended the Designer Garage Sale which benefits the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

That's a good cause.

Source

Derek Fisher Does the Right Thing

Whit — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:01:00 GMT

Derek Fisher is a basketball player. He is also a father. You may recall the NBA playoffs this past season where Derek missed the majority of a game to be by his daughter's side. She is 11-months-old and has cancer in her eye. Derek stayed with her all day in NYC, flew across the country, and came onto the court to the thunderous applause and tears of thousands of fans, his teammates, and even the opposing team. It could have been a movie, except that once the credits rolled and the fans went home, Derek's little girl, Tatum, still had cancer.

She still does, and that is why Derek Fisher is stepping away from basketball to take care of his family. It's the right thing to do.

Fisher doesn't want to retire but acknowledged it's a possibility.

"I'll be 33 in August. I'm 6-1. I averaged 10 points this year," he said. "I don't know how many people feel strongly about what I do."

Derek, basketball is a game. People feel strongly about what your are doing. Good luck to you and your family.