National Hereditary Cancer Week starts today. As an advocate and parent of a previvor, my personal message for the week: Hereditary cancer is preventable. Let's change the way we talk about hereditary cancer.
9/29/24
9/24/24
Hereditary Cancer is Preventable
Hereditary cancer risk is not an individual issue, it can involve half the family tree. Hundreds of thousands of cancer cases could be prevented and thousands of lives saved every year if we just changed the way we think and talk about hereditary cancer.
National Hereditary Cancer Week begins this coming Sunday. Do you know the health history of your family tree? Hereditary cancer is preventable.
A sidenote: Angelina Jolie is said to be a Filles du Roi descendant on her maternal side. Angelina has a BRCA1 mutation. Her mother, who died of ovarian cancer, was of French-Canadian descent.
9/16/24
Puking on the Mayflower
The Mayflower/Thanksgiving thing feels kind of awkward for me with all the books, websites, merchandising, and total BS about some of my ancestors. And then I also have Native American ancestors on my father’s side (DNA-yes, exact tribe-it’s complicated). Thanksgiving is a mixed bag at my house.
Many of the Pilgrims did not survive that first year at Plymouth. I’m thankful Resolved did survive; otherwise (duh), I would not exist. My 9th great-grandfather did not. But my 9th great-grandmother did and likely helped prepare the first Thanksgiving dinner.
Obviously, I don’t have total reverence for my heritage. While I do have some decent notable ancestors and genetic cousins – adventurers, writers, artists – from the history books, some of my genetic relatives were just plain as…, er, not great humans.
Go to www.MARKiX.net/mayflower to read some truths about the Mayflower voyage.
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Postscript. Something to contemplate: Many famous people (Clint Eastwood, Sally Field, John Lithgow, Noah Webster, and others) are descendants of William Bradford and his second wife. They would not exist if my cousin, Dorothy (May) Bradford, had not died. Dorothy "fell" off the Mayflower and drowned in the icy waters while the ship was anchored off Cape Cod Harbor.
9/3/24
2024 National Hereditary Cancer Week Posters
One to raise awareness about the hereditary cancer community. And one to make a point that there are ways to prevent hereditary cancer in spite of some medical policies and practices still stuck in the last century. (More about that in upcoming posts.)
Please share. And you can download PDFs at: genetionary.org
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