St. Jude welcomes back survivors for 13th annual event


2009 Survivors Day

The heart of the 13th Annual St. Jude Cancer Survivors Conference was sandwiched between an opening night of karaoke and a Saturday afternoon carnival with 138 childhood cancer survivors accompanied by 320 family members taking part this year. Participants came from 20 states to reconnect with other survivors, reunite with St. Jude faculty and staff and help mark the 25th anniversary of the St. Jude After Completion of Therapy (ACT) Clinic.

A testament to the dramatic changes in childhood cancer treatment since 1962, the annual event was described by Melissa Hudson, MD, co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program, as an opportunity to celebrate survivorship and to remind survivors that help is still available through St. Jude.

In addition to having fun, survivors, family and friends attended workshops, took part in the health fair and gained inspiration from speakers. This year’s theme, “Survivorship—Enhancing the Silver Lining,” embraced the idea of 25 years of research and treatment along with the importance of caring for body, mind and spirit following cancer.

“We as survivors have a great responsibility and opportunity to take care of ourselves, to live as well as we can for as long as we can,” Debbie Crom, RN, PhD, told childhood cancer survivors attending a workshop on living well after a brain tumor. Crom is a breast cancer survivor and nurse practitioner in St. Jude Oncology. She has worked in the ACT Clinic since it opened in 1984.

“You are a member of a team. We want you to work on staying well and to be a watchdog for your own health,” Crom said. “This is something you will always have to pay attention to.”

Crom and Tim Folse, MD, led the workshop, one of four offered October 10. Folse is clinical director of the ACT Clinic and St. Jude LIFE, a long-term study of St. Jude alumni.

Eric Shanteau, a cancer survivor and member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic swim team, delivered the conference’s keynote address.

“It is a different thing to live your life after cancer,” he told the audience. “Everyone here has overcome mountains. It is about how you pick yourself back up afterward.”

Shanteau, 26, discovered he had testicular cancer in 2008, just days before the U.S. Olympic trials. He landed a spot on the team and delayed treatment until after the Beijing Olympics. In September, he marked the first anniversary of being declared cancer free.

Many of the survivors treated at St. Jude will participate in the St. Jude LIFE Study, one of the most ambitious efforts yet to understand the impact of childhood cancer on survivors. Investigators are inviting back more than 4,000 alumni to undergo a variety of evaluations. Survivors such as Kelly Burlison, 54, who was 10 years old when he was admitted to St. Jude, will take part in the study. Now a public school superintendent in Fredericktown, Missouri, he is scheduled to return to St. Jude next summer to participate in the St. Jude LIFE Study.

“It is important for me to participate in St. Jude LIFE so I can hear from St. Jude doctors what I need to do to safeguard my health and to help other survivors down the road,” Burlison said.

October 2009
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