Marcia Gay Harden

September 30th, 2008

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My advocacy work with breast cancer started as character research for the movie Rails and Ties, with Kevin Bacon. I began researching a character who had undergone a mastectomy and had Stage Four breast cancer. A few women— cancer survivors—were brought to set who had had mastectomies so that I could meet them and understand what they had gone through. Meeting these women was pretty transformative for me and helped me realize what a problem breast cancer is. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer every year, so in portraying these women in some of my movies, it’s a chance to bring real issues like breast cancer to the consciousness of America.

I hope through my acting to illuminate human conditions and promote a kind of healing. My job as an advocate is to encourage women to get mammograms, because prevention is the first step. Cancer affects us all, and it doesn’t know color, creed, finances, or background. It’s really been a pleasure for me to be able to speak out and talk about the importance of prevention. (more…)

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Montel Williams

September 3rd, 2008

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Getting my initial multiple sclerosis diagnosis took years. In fact, we’ve just recently been able to diagnose this disease relatively quickly. Back when I should have been diagnosed, they weren’t diagnosing anybody. But every couple of months, I’d go to the doctor and say, “There’s something really weird going on and I can’t figure it out.” And the doctor would tell me to stop lifting weights and I’d be okay.

I repeated this over and over again while I was still in the military. I left the military and started the talk show, and this scenario kept repeating. Finally, I went to one doctor who took one look at me and said, almost matter of factly, “I’ve got to tell you, this looks like MS. I can’t tell you without the test, but I think you have MS.” (more…)

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Nancy Pearson

September 10th, 2008

I’ve been a type II insulin dependent diabetic for 20 years now. I originally thought it was a death sentence. I love to eat and that is why I thought it was going to be a death sentence. I thought I’d never be able to eat the foods I love or live a normal life. But working with doctors and becoming more educated about diabetes and the importance of insulin, I learned that diabetes is not a death sentence and that I could, and am, living a normal life, even with diabetes. The secret to living a normal life is to test, test, test! (more…)

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