Cancer Patients

In the movies, people often die in some quick, dramatic way. There are bullets, train wrecks, serial killers, monsters, or, at least, exotic illnesses. If they die quietly, they almost always leave with a memorably pithy comment. Many of us don't know much more than that about death until it comes to live in our own house. Friends may lose family members, but they rarely talk about the uglier aspects of dying. We all conspire to protect one another - and perhaps our loved ones' dignity - from the smells, sounds, and suffering that accompany the slow shutdown of vital organs.

Joan Lewis always talks about having lived a full and rich life. Well, on Tuesday it got a little richer. That's when the grandmother from Virginia, who has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, fulfilled another dream. Two days after seeing the Connecticut women's team compete in the NCAA tournament, the devoted Huskies fan was a guest at Tuesday's shootaround at the Liacouras Center. The 74-year-old even gave top-seeded UConn a pep talk before Tuesday night's 75-40 rout of Duke in the Philadelphia Regional final.

INDIANAPOLIS - Cancer threatened to prevent Mark Herzlich from getting here, but getting here is what helped Herzlich beat cancer. "Once I got diagnosed, I said a prayer every morning, every night, to be cancer-free, to play football again," the linebacker said Sunday at the NFL scouting combine. "That pathway, that goal is what got me to the end. " Herzlich, who grew up in Wayne and graduated from Conestoga High, said he often talks to cancer patients who struggle without having such a clear focus.

AS WE head into 2011, I'd like to offer a stadium cheer for Gerald Furgione, executive director of PhillyCarShare, for trying to level the playing field between city and suburban cancer patients. I know: You wouldn't think patients' ZIP codes would affect whether they're able to travel to their treatment. Especially since the American Cancer Society has a terrific national program called Road to Recovery. It pairs volunteer drivers with cancer patients who are unable or too sick to drive to their appointments, or have no one to take them there.

For many cancer patients, the main obstacle to getting treatment in Philadelphia is not health insurance, side effects, or lack of therapies. "Twenty percent of appointments are canceled because patients can't get there," said Gerald Furgione. As executive director of Phillycarshare, Furgione has figured out a way to help: Enlist volunteers to drive cancer patients to treatment in car-share vehicles, at no cost to the drivers or riders. The Phillypatientride program, believed to be unique in the United States, will hit the road Jan. 4. Reduced car-share fees will be covered by the American Cancer Society, Hahnemann University Hospital, and Temple University Hospital.

A campaign ad mailed out to criticize two candidates running for the Gloucester County freeholder board displays a photograph of a cancer victim and a grim statistic about cancer deaths. Its source, the ad says, is the website for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for breast cancer education and research. But a Komen official says the organization did not provide the photograph of the bald female cancer patient and does not endorse any political party or candidate.

Allison Elizabeth Bladt Fawcett, 32, of Lansdale, an elementary teacher in the Central Bucks School District, died at her home Tuesday, Oct. 5, after an eight-year battle with breast cancer. Mrs. Fawcett grew up in Lansdale, and graduated from North Penn High School in 1996. She earned both a cum laude bachelor's degree in elementary and early childhood education, and a master's degree in reading education, from Millersville University in 2002. While there, Mrs. Fawcett met her husband, Brian, who was from Manheim, Pa. In 2002, she was hired to teach first grade at Groveland Elementary School in Doylestown.

As soon as Deana Vega felt strong enough, she was back in the hospital where she'd spent nearly a year of her life battling cancer. Deana, 11, wasn't there for herself last September, but to cheer on other young patients weighed down by the disease she knows all too well. "I told them, 'Keep your head up, smile, and remember: Bald is beautiful,' " she said. Now, Deana, who was diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia in May 2008 and is in remission, has recruited the help of two committed teachers to write a children's book about her experience for others coping with cancer.

TEN YEARS AGO or so, Marci Schankweiler was living a different life. She had a career as a tax attorney and was in the early years of her marriage to a young man named Peter Bossow. They had attended their high school prom together, gone to La Salle University and had looked forward to years of happiness when Peter was diagnosed at age 29 with a rare form of testicular cancer. For just over a year, Peter waged a courageous battle with the disease, a period during which he underwent surgery and chemotherapy.

O PRAH WINFREY was here meeting with Comcast yesterday afternoon and had another meeting at the Table 31 restaurant on the ground floor of Comcast Center. A Comcast spokesman confirmed that Winfrey was at the cable giant's headquarters but said he did not know the nature of her conversations. Winfrey's stepping down from her long-running and wildly successful talk show on Sept. 9, 2011, and will then launch OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, which will presumably be carried on Comcast.