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
