I've been an avid reader of Leroy Sievers' blog "My Cancer" (see the link on the right side of this posting) since July - about two weeks after I was first diagnosed. I've found it to be the best support group that I could have asked for as a patient. As a reader and frequent commenter, I have joined a tremendous on-line community of cancer patients and their care-givers. About a week and a half ago, I was contacted by Neva Grant, who is one of the producers of National Public Radio's Morning Edition radio program. They are preparing a story about Leroy Sievers and his blog as part of a story they are doing about a Discovery Channel documentary on cancer that will be aired in early May. The radio story will feature selected excerpts from the blog, along with some of the comments, as read by the commenters. I was honored to be asked to read several of the comments that I have submitted for use on the radio story. The picture above is me at the studios of radio station KUOW (our Seattle NPR affiliate) yesterday, doing an interview with Neva Grant and recording the selections that they will use for the program. I have a difficult time recording my out-of-office voice mail message every week (for days I go in for treatment), so I was a little nervous. I had to read each selection about three times before I did it slow enough to be good radio material. I'm not sure how they'll use my excerpts, but I'll be interested to hear the voices of some of the other regular commenters that also participated - it will be nice to associate voices with commenters. I'm also glad that they didn't want a picture - the Erbitux rash is in full blaze right now and I have what's gently called a "face made for radio" which thankfully doesn't show in the picture above.
I'm looking forward to seeing the Discovery Channel program. Leroy worked with Ted Koppel on Nightline, and Koppel wanted to include Leroy's battle with cancer as part of the documentary. They followed him through a treatment session and interviewed his oncologist, caregivers, family and friends (see link http://www.npr.org/blogs/mycancer/2006/11/words_that_cut_through_the_noise.html. ).
I'm not sure of the exact date when the Discovery documentary will air, but I know it will be in early May. The radio story is set to air on May 4th, so listen to Morning Edition on your local NPR station. Check their program guides to find out when they run the program - usually anywhere between 5:00 AM and 9:00 AM, with many stations repeating the program at least once and sometimes twice during the time slot. I'll let you know if the schedule changes.
A final note for the week. I never thought that I would ever have anything in common with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. The announcement this week that his cancer had returned and metastasized to his liver and possibly elsewhere hit me just as hard as the recent news of Elizabeth Edwards' cancer recurrence. Regardless of your political persuasion, please include both of them in your thoughts and prayers - they have a tough fight ahead and could use all the help they can get.
