SECOND ANNUAL BALLOON-A-THON

We are hosting our second annual balloon-a-thon to support our Beat Lung Cancer campaign! Please consider donating $10/balloon in honor or in celebration of someone who has beat lung cancer. Each balloon will represent a lung cancer patient who has inspired others with their courage.

Donations of $100 or more may choose to receive a copy of Tall Ship Odysseys: Fifty Years of Operation Sail by David Taylor, which is a large, beautiful hardcover book that has been generously donated to the Forum.

The reception will take place on June 23^rd, 2012 at 12 pm in the Peter Bent Brigham Rotunda, located at the 15 Francis St. entrance of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The participant with the most donations raised will receive a prize!

For donations by check, please click here for the order form. Secure online donations are possible through the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Development Office by following the “Make a Donation” link to the right.

The first annual balloon-a-thon collected 1000 balloons, and as a result sponsored “Out of the Shadows,” an educational conference with over 60 attendees; a DVD entitled “Living Well Beyond Lung Cancer” for patients; and a Pillow Initiative, which provides women who have undergone surgery for lung cancer with a cough pillow and inspiring stories from members of our Forum. This year, our goal is to raise 1500 balloons.

Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and generosity. Together we can beat lung cancer!

Click here to view the Balloon-A-Thon Flyer

NEW EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS

The “Living Well Beyond Lung Cancer” DVD, a collaboration between the Women’s Lung Cancer Program and Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, is now available on YouTube. It features information that is pertinent to all lung cancer patients. Please visit our new Educational Videos page, which you can access from the menu at the top, to view the videos!

Pillow Rollout!

We are excited to announce today’s launch of the Women’s Lung Cancer Forum Pillow Initiative!

Sponsored by the women of the Forum, the cough pillows include stories and other resources to help women undergoing surgery for treatment of lung cancer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

We are open to anyone who wishes to make a donation of money or inspiring stories to keep this initiative growing. Our goal is to encourage women to fight the fight you have all done successfully and to get new faces at the Forum!

We Are Collecting Letters!

After a fruitful discussion at this month’s Forum, we are excited to announce a new project:

THE WOMEN’S LUNG CANCER FORUM IS COLLECTING LETTERS!

We would like to invite YOU (patients, caregivers, and family members) to contribute a letter to the Women’s Lung Cancer Forum story collection.

The letters can be in the form of advice to new patients, caregivers, family members, and friends. You can describe a funny story, how you found hope, ways to survive, etc. Share as much or as little as you would like about something that you learned from having gone through this process. No personal, identifiable information is necessary.

Remember, they don’t have to be perfect! We will gladly accept drafts at all stages (maximum length 1 page).

Our goal is to compile these letters into a bound book to be placed in our Thoracic Surgery Clinic and to include a mix of these letters with the pillows that will be handed out to new patients.

To submit your letter:

Email: wlcpforum@partners.org

Address:    
Women’s Lung Cancer Program
c/o Yolonda Colson
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Division of Thoracic Surgery
75 Francis Street
Boston, MA 02115

Or drop it off in one of the designated boxes at the 15 Francis St. and 45 Francis St. Thoracic Surgery Clinics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Click here to view the Letter Collection Flyer

Follow us!

We are striving to make this site more interactive! In the coming weeks, we will be posting information on a number of projects we are working on, as well as links to relevant articles. By clicking the “Follow” link located at the bottom right-hand corner of the page, you can sign up to receive email alerts whenever we post something new. We hope you’ll follow us!

 

Fall 2011 Meeting Schedule

The Women’s Lung Cancer Forum meets on the second Wednesday of every month at 6:30 pm, on the 4th floor of the Gretchen S. and Edward A. Fish Center for Women’s Health located at 850 Boylston Street in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Our upcoming meetings are as follows:

12/14/11:   Allison DiBiaso, LICSW – Thoracic Cancer Treatment Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Topic: “The Waiting Game: Dealing/Coping with Anxiety Around Test Results”

1/11/12:     Aileen Chen, MD, MPP – Radiation Oncology Division, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Topic: “Radiation Therapy and Lung Cancer”

2/8/2012:   Richard Boyajian, RN, MS, ANP – Adult Survivorship Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Topic: “Life Goes On, Even If You Are Not Always Ready For It To”

3/14/12:    Paul Ricard, PT, DPT, CCS – Inpatient Physical Therapy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Topic: “Waiting to Inhale: Exercising to Decrease Shortness of Breath”

4/11/12:    Pam Calarese, RN, MS, CS – Thoracic Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Topic: “Long Term Treatment Side Effects”

5/9/12:   Stacy Gray, MD, AM – Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Topic: “Personalized Medicine and Lung Cancer – an Update”

6/13/12:   David Jackman, MD – Thoracic Cancer Treatment Center, Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center

Topic: “Small Cell Lung Cancer”

7/11/12:   Gerald Weinhouse, MD – Thoracic Cancer Treatment Center, Pulmonary, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center

Topic: TBD

Welcome!

Welcome to the new website of the Women’s Lung Cancer Forum. We hope you find this site helpful and informational. Check out our meeting schedule and see if there’s a topic that interests you. We hope you will join us!

Warm regards,

The Women’s Lung Cancer Forum Team