Documentary tells cancer stories
Colon cancer doesn’t have to happen. That’s the overriding message of a new documentary, “Surviving Colon Cancer,” which airs11p. m. Thursday onWPBT- Ch. 2 in South Florida and features survivors and patients from Boca Raton, Weston and Miami.
The program stresses the importance of early screenings in saving people’s lives and was produced by Grace Shafir, a Boca Raton colon cancer survivor. She sought to share other people’s stories and raise awareness about the disease. The documentary was also her way of thanking the doctors and nurses who helped give her a second chance.
“It’s one of those things that when I was still sick, I wanted to do something to help people,’’ said Shafir, who was diagnosed with cancer four years ago after a colonoscopy. She received treatment from the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center/ University of MiamiHealth System.
“I want other people to understand that they don’t have to get colon cancer,” she added.
OnTV
“Surviving Colon Cancer” 11p. m. Thursday onWPBT- Ch. 2
Shafir spent two years making the documentary with help from a Health Foundation of South Florida grant. She traveled throughout South Florida, as well as to Orlando, Nashville and Washington, D. C., for doctor and patient interviews.
Narrated byUMpresident Donna Shalala, the program features interviews with high- profile colon cancer survivors such as actress Fran Drescher, who revealed it took her two years and eight doctors to be diagnosed.
JusticeRuth Bader Ginsburg shared how she scheduled theworst of herchemotreatments during breaks in the Supreme Court’s schedule. And country musician Charlie Kelley recalled how three weeks after his wife had completed her round of chemotherapy, he discovered he had colon cancer. Kelley scored the documentary’s music.
Intercut with their stories are local survivors and patients. They include Julie Greene, a middle school media arts teacher in West Palm Beach, and Carlos Diaz, a teacher and grandfather in Hialeah.
Also featured: Vicki Gonzalez, aWeston wife and mother who was diagnosed with rectal cancer 3 years ago. She tells viewers of the challenges of balancing family and work with her treatments. She had to undergo a second and a third round of chemotherapy because her cancer metastasized.
“Cancer is not a death sentence,’’ she wrote in an email. “Cancer is something youare going tohave to deal with but it does not define you. Surroundyourself with people that support you, who believe in you.”
The floral importer sales representative said that shewanted to appear in the documentary to help spark a broader conversation about colon cancer.
“People are embarrassed to discuss issues dealing with the colon,’’ added Gonzalez, 45. “I wanted to change that and make people see that getting over being embarrassed is a lot easier than fighting cancer… Ifmy story savesonelife, it’sworth it.”