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.