Before the month draws to a close, I wanted to take a moment to spread September cancer awareness and encourage activities that lead to early detection in a brief video message...

September is cancer awareness month for seven different types of cancer:

• Childhood Cancer
• Uterine Cancer
• Leukemia
• Lymphoma
• Ovarian Cancer
• Prostate Cancer
• Thyroid Cancer

And while there are more survivors every year we still lose far too many. Here are some September cancer awareness stats that might surprise you. There are approximately 16,000 new childhood cancer cases diagnosed every year and 20% of those patients won’t survive. Approximately 160,000 men are diagnosed annually with prostate cancer and approximately 19% will die from this disease. And I could go on...

As someone who was recently diagnosed with stage I ovarian cancer, it is important to me that I do my part to encourage activities that may lead to early detection. Ovarian cancer is known as the "silent killer" because typically it is diagnosed at a late stage, but since my stage I diagnosis in January of this year, my five-year survival rate is high.As a survivor, I encourage all of you to talk to your doctor about changes in your appetite, energy level or overall health. Take it from me, early detection can save your life. 

As we wrap up September cancer awareness activities, I would like to send a special thanks to all the physicians, nurses, navigators and, of course, the cancer registrars dedicating their careers to saving cancer patients' lives.