Hear stories of survival at GBH’s ‘Living with Cancer’

Cancer can be a difficult topic to discuss, but GBH World is trying to bring a hopeful tone to the conversation with true stories told by those who are directly impacted.

Partnering with Count Me In — a nonprofit research initiative that works to understand cancer through patients’ experiences — GBH World will host “Stories from the Stage: Living with Cancer” at its Brighton studios on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The live storytelling event will feature doctors, patients, and researchers who will share their narratives on cancer detection, treatment, and survival.

“Living with Cancer” centers around personal experience with inequity in health care for marginalized communities, self-advocacy, and initiatives attempting to reduce the gaps in care.

Co-executive producer Liz Cheng said the series focuses on storytellers “who speak from the heart of their own diverse communities” as they tell the “best and worst moments of their lives.” The event will feature Boston-based journalist and speechwriter Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, author of the forthcoming memoir “American Hyphen,” who is working on a master’s in public policy at Harvard, along with seven other participants. Cheng said for many of the storytellers, this is their first time telling their lived experiences onstage.

Mel Mann, a survivor of chronic myeloid leukemia from Georgia, will share his story, beginning with his initial diagnosis in 1995 when he was told he had three years to live unless he could secure a bone marrow donor.

While he was unable to locate a match of his own, Mann hosted bone marrow drives to support others, which led him to be referred to a clinical trial that saved his life. Since his diagnosis, Mann has continued to host drives to help others find a transplant.

Mann said he is especially focused on increasing the number of Black bone marrow transplant recipients because as of 2021, Black patients had a 23 percent chance of finding a donor while white patients had a 77 percent chance, according to Cancer.net.

“My goal is to educate and to spread hope,” Mann said.

Stories told at the event will split between two broadcasts on June 5 and 12 on GBH World in honor of National Cancer Survivors Month. Viewers can stream the events at worldchannel.org and on the PBS app.

“Stories from the Stage: Living with Cancer,” GBH World. Wednesday, 6:30-9:15 p.m. $50. wgbh.org