It has taken almost a year.... but a nice article has been published in Woman's Day Magazine, May10th issue, on oral cancer, and the need for early detection. I began working with the writer Dana Hudepohl almost a year ago. We talked for several hours, over a period of a month about the project and I had her also talk with other doctors, to verify and add credibility to the information that I gave her. She also spoke to another survivor, and with Rosie, who as long time posters here know, lost her daughter to OC. Almost a year later the project comes to fruition in the magazine on the stands. These efforts, while time consuming, are important. First, since the foundation is not a wealthy organization, these free exposures of the knowledge and mission of early detection are something we can do that costs us only our time. An article that gets placed in a national magazine like this will be read by hundreds of thousands of women. The message of early detection is spread. These things just don't happen by accident. A talented writer is solicited to write an article, she pitches it to an editor at a magazine, (who gets thousands of pitches a month for ideas), who chooses that idea for the readership. The writer then collects the facts and writes the article for submission, still with the possibility that the editor won't like it, or feel it inappropriate, or find a zillion other reasons not to run it. If accepted, then the magazine's paid staff of fact checkers make phone calls to people who know about the topic and to those interviewed by the writer, every detail has to be accurate. Finally it gets into the queue for publication where it may sit for months.... and only if championed by an editor will it see the light of day in any timely manner. It is a long process. Many companies and organizations much bigger than OCF have full time PR firms or employees that see that the exposure of their idea, product, etc. is out there all the time. I obviously can only devote a small amount of time to this...but when we get out there, the impact as far as our mission to raise public awareness is fulfilled a bit more. This year we also had good results with a great, long story in the Wall St. Journal.

OCF cannot put the content of the article up on the web site right now, but will be able to in the future. For $2.50 you can buy your own copy, and support the magazine that supported us, and our cause. If any of you are so inclined, you may email the health editor Jill Rowley, [email protected] who saw the potential in this story and got it to the light of day, and thank her for helping spread the word about an important cause that the American public does not hear about often. It was kind of her to include links to OCF at the end of the article as well for additional information. It would be good for her to hear that we believe that her effort and decisions will help save lives in the future. If anyone wishes to write the author to thank her for choosing to champion this article and disease, her email is [email protected] Of course, I would like to thank Rosie for sharing her loss and personal pain in a public way... that will hopefully touch someone who reads about Heather, and as a result, ensure that they will go annually for a screening for oral cancer.

This kind of effort when it works pays off in lives saved. The idea is expandable to anyone who wishes to help get the word out. We need to get this story on the tube through venues like Harpo Productions (Oprah) with celebrity survivors, and Couric's or other talk show venues as well. We have the heavy hitter support of doctors to appear about the disease, what we need to do is get the producers interested in the story. Ditto Men's health/fitness magazines and others are ideal venues to talk about the sexual transmission of HPV and oral cancer risk factors. But it takes letter writing to make it happen

Hi Brian, I just bought my Womans Day magazine today and after I saw your post I read it right away.......Bravo!! Wonderful.....

Congradulations Brian,

This will have the biggest impact on early detection so far. I'll make sure to buy the magazine and email the author thanking her.

Danny Boy

Brian,
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been waiting for this issue. Actually I thought I had missed it. Didn't realize it would take so long to get published! Can't wait to pick up a copy and I certainly will be sending thanks to all involved.

BTW, I guess I should be doing more to help, so which talk show would give us the most impact? I know Oprah has a huge impact, but I have heard it is tremendously hard to get on her show. What do you think of the Jane Pauley show? Since it is a newer show, would they be more receptive? Maybe they aren't as deluged with requests?

Is there a particular segment you want to reach? i.e., if you want to reach young people, which show would have the most exposure? I rarely watch any of them, so my opinion doesn't count for much. Any of you who watch talk shows, what do you think? I'm willing to be part of a campaign, but with which show should we start?

Rosie

Hi,

I was just informed by another member that the Jane Pauly show has been cancelled, so who has another idea? Which show should we target? Oprah, Montel, Ellen......I don't even know who else has talk shows. I am not a daytime TV watcher, so I need some help here. Or should we target another magazine first?

If we are going to emphasize the case for early detection, Heather's story isn't even the best to use. Yes, if her cancer had been detected earlier, she would have had a better chance of survival. But she was seen by a dentist who did regular oral screenings, so we can't use the negligent dentist angle. She wasn't a smoker, so we can't use that as an angle. She didn't have any early warning signs that she ignored or that were missed by a doctor. Yes, it is true her GP didn't pick up on the ear pain/sore throat problem, but that alone usually isn't a red flag for OC.

Then again, maybe since her case was unusual because of the lack of early symptoms, the lack of tobacco use, the lack of the tumor showing up on a CT scan, maybe it can still be used to show that you must be ever vigilant in your health care. You know your own body better than any doctor and you must be aware of any changes and push, push, push for your doctor to find out why you are having pain or whatever. I don't know. What do any of you think?

Of course, whether or not we use Heather's story in any way, I can still help push to get more recognition of OC. We just need some suggestions for a plan. Let's bat it around and see where it goes.

Rosie

The Tony Danza Show has a contest running right now called, New Smile, New Style, people send in pictures to get chipped teeth, etc fixed. Maybe they could be convinced to run it as a follow up to that??? They also have a place on their website where you can submit "Amazing Human Interest Stories". The website is: thetonydanzashow.com

Bought my copy today Brian & Rosie. It was very uplifting to see our website getting such large
exposure in mainstream print. How many people will read this and be saved from what most of us have been through?

Rosie thanks for sharing and Brian thank you for making it happen.

Best to all, Danny Boy

Brian,

I have been writing and rewriting a letter to the Oprah show for a while and I just can't get the tone right. I want exposure to raise public awareness and I want people to know not to take "it's nothing" for an answer when there has been no definitive diagnostic testing done. Maybe 20/20 -- I kind of have a contact at ABC news. Possibly at NBC news too.

Barb

Barb

What we need to do is all of us pick a venue, Oprah or whomever, and decide on the best tone, content, etc. to approach them with. THEN as many of us as we can muster, write the three producers there with the pitch. If we all hit the same note, and a hundred emails came to them singing the same tune, the glass might break like in the Memorex commercial..... We are stronger together and united in thought than any one of us is alone.

One of my ideas has been to contact Trump and get him to have a challenge on their apprentice show on raising funds, and doing public good via work with a non-profit like OCF. We would be a great example of how a bunch of MBA's could do good, and at the same time the millions of people that watch the show would get educated on oral cancer. Plus there would be the PR that the show's staff generate to publicize the show. Ellen doesn't do serious subjects. The morning shows (4 of them) all have topics that are less than 5 minutes long, and most less than 3 min long. Not much time to really tell the story. I think a multi-prong approach. A magazine, and I vote for Men's health, and a show, my vote for Oprah..the hardest one in the world to get on, and a reality show The Apprentice.

With Trump's reaction to the young man on the current Apprentice chewing, and the advice when the young man was fired to "Stay away from tobacco"; that might be a very good target. I am glad to help in this project in anyway.

What a great article in Woman's Day mag. Thank you so much Rosie and Brian for contributing. I wrote to the editor and to Dana thanking them so much for helping to get the word out! God Bless, Carol

Brian, it amazes me how much work it is to "get the word out" I have someone locally that does a wonderful job without knowing that he is and I wish there was a place where I could post my Dentists name for folks that live here in the Fraser Valley. I went looking and asking and questioning and looking for follow up and far too many health professionals didn't help much, just did what they had to and sent myself & others on their way. I dont like to talk about cancer much other than with the forum, but I also realize we have to be proactive in our care and in the preventative measures for others. Educating people with the experiences others have had before them WILL make their paths easier to travel..very few healtth professionals have GOT that. Survivors and caregivers may: but what about people whose lives have not yet been touched by oral cancer? They CAN be more fortunate with early detective measures. I will tell you more about this wonderful Dentist and what he has achieved with our cancer center (which I found near impossile to become registered with via my ENT, H&N, general & oral surgeons, but not him..I am now on lesion detection patrol)if I can get some information out to his office. We are both very active within our communities. How can we help? Maria

The first icon next to the date of a persons post will take you to their email address if they wish people on the board to have access to it. Just click on mine to get a hot link directly into my email or anyone else's.

Brian,
I love the Trump-angle! Tom and I were discussing ways to get oral cancer in the news after the Peter Jennings announcement of lung cancer and the first 'criteria' was "Big Name."

WE are eager to help with letter-writing, calling or whatever. I would think Men's Health would be a good magazine, but MAXIM would reach more 'at risk' men, I'd think.

I'm running late today, but will check back here tomorrow. I'll work on some angles tonight.
Nicki

Brian,

Okay, Men's Health, Oprah and The Apprentice. Now, are we going to pick one editor or producer to bombard with e-mails for each venue? I have never tried to pull off any kind of PR campaign like this but I think we should decide what the course of action should be and then take it and get as many OCF members to follow our lead as we can. I've been having some luck with moving with motivating people lately so I feel like I can do it again. Let's make a plan and go for it.

Barb

I am up to my ass in alligators right now, but the first thing will be to write a letter to Mark Burnett the producer of The Apprentice. Someone (or more than one person) in the message boards readership needs to take the first whack at this. I will have an address for him on Monday, via an agency in Hollywood that I have friends in. This address will be better than what is listed for him in VIP directories. We need to pitch the idea, who we are, and what they, the public, and the foundation get out of it. Several people should take a shot at the first draft of the letter, then after massaging a few versions out of it; we will get the membership to contact him directly with it. I was told by my Hollywood friends that The Apprentice has indeed done a charity related challenge a while back and it was for the pediatric AIDS foundation, and they are very heavily tied to Glassier there.... I don't know that we will break through that relationship, but we need to try. The fact that our disease is not well known by the public is a major point in comparison to AIDS. The fact that we are much smaller as an organization, and their shows impact on our disease (via public awareness, literacy, and early detection) as a result would be greater is a factor. The fact that our disease is not waiting for a new wonder drug to change the toll of death, but that that toll can be reduced through public awareness and early detection is a major point

Hi Brian et al,

Yes, I know how long it takes to be "heard" - I started writing about a year ago, then submitted to our National Radio Broadcaster, the ABC (Australia), for "The Science Show". I was recorded reading them not long after, then not much happened again until December, when I finished reading a couple more stories I wrote.

They still have not been aired, should be soon I hope! But I can understand why it takes so long, slotting things in when time is appropriate, relevance to what is happening around that time (being a science program, there are alot more relevant subjects to be aired, like "Science Week", Nobel awards and so on. I gave the producer and the presenter printouts about OCF, plus links of course, and maybe this is another factor that it is taking a while, as they have to do their own research, etc.

I'll have a look for "Woman's Day" over here, not guaranteed that I'll find it.

As usual Brian has done another wonderful thing, thanks heaps

Cheers!

Tizz from Oz

Brian,

I saw the Woman's Day article. Congratulations. I'll take a stab at a letter to Burnett this weekend.

Barb

Brian,

Thanks again for the huge effort you are always putting forth in increasing the awareness of oral cancer. I plan on going out tomorrow and buying a few magazines and dropping them off on my way to the doctor! It should make great reading for the waiting room.

Ed

More efforts have panned out this time in two dental trade magazines that go to dentists. One is a very long two-page article in Dentist's Money Digest, and the other is in dental Products report, both which have circulations to more than 75,000 dentists. OCF was the focus of the first and the issue of legal liability was prominently discussed in the article. Recommendations that doctors get current training in discovery and diagnosis was the conclusion of the article with links directly to OCF. The second was about how OC is becoming an important issue to dentists (crap after pushing them for 5 years we would expect to see the pressures and comments noticed by them) and references OCF as the primary information source as far as web links. Progress is measured in many small increments.

Lastly I will be at the NYU graduation ceremonies at Madison Square Garden on May 12th receiving the Stussman award for outstanding public service from dean Mike Alfano. I will have a few minutes to address the graduates on the possibilities that their future holds, and the accompanying responsibilities that go hand in hand with them. This will be my third graduating class to address, (two others last year in CA), and again a small group will hear our story and hopefully take it to heart in their practices. Another small increment.

When I get a few moments next week I will up date you all on my recent trip to meet with the powers that be in Chicago at the ADA, and what joint ideas we are exploring

I love all the ideas. One thing I'd suggest is a clear message about what EXACTLY we want people to do: send money, get a yearly check with a dentist, check their own necks and mouths, ask the question only if they feel something wrong in the oral cavity, don't take no for an answer unless it comes from a CCC! What is the sound bite we want Donald to say in the 23 seconds he addresses it in the Board room? Put another way, if we can't tell the story in three minutes on national television, we may need to work on the story!

Lawrence