Every Effort Counts!

We firmly believe that knowledge is power. Education is one of our two core missions, directing us to share our education projects with everyone who visits “Be Strong Hearted.” As a reader, you become one of our educators! Large or small, our goals for Education are the same: helping individuals and families to recognize their risks for HDGC syndrome, supporting medical professionals to identify families at risk for HDGC, creating and expanding interest in genetic cancers, promoting family health history efforts, and especially, recognizing that HDGC may be under-identified, and to encourage genetic counseling at every early opportunity.

The Quinnipiac University Physician Assistant program in Hamden, Connecticut recently incorporated a Genomics course into the PA training curriculum. The course, taught online using PowerPoint presentations with voice-recorded lectures, teaches students about genetically-inherited diseases and conditions and when to refer patients for genetic counseling based on their risk factors and family history. In the fall of 2008, a lecture on Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer will be presented as part of the gastrointestinal section of the genomics course. This is the first time that HDGC has been incorporated into the PA curriculum at Quinnipiac. The lecture and presentation on HDGC was prepared and presented by Johanna Chelcun, BS, PA Student, who will be a licensed PA in November 2008. Each year approximately 40-50 new graduates will be armed with basic knowledge and awareness of HDGC as they embark on their new careers in the medical field. September 2008

Watch and listen to Johanna’s HDGC Presentation.

Note: Correction to Presentation
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Some of our HDGC Education Efforts . . .

July 2009

• 07/21/09 Karen Chelcun requested a link to the Be Strong Hearted website on the Facebook Stomach Cancer Awareness and Facebook Stomach Cancer - The Silent Cancer Pages. Requests were approved and links added.
• 07/21/09 Johanna Chelcun connected with the Yale Cancer Genetic Counseling Blogspot to link to the Be Strong Hearted website.
• 07/18/09 The Celebration of Greg Chelcun’s Life in Stevens Point, WI will raise awareness and further educate the public about HDGC.

June 2009

• 06/30/09 Two wine tasting events held in June offered the opportunity to educate the public about HDGC. One was held in Madison, WI and another in Anchorage, AK.   See the Events page for more information about these events.
• 06/22/09 Karen Chelcun e-mailed Cancer.net to request inclusion of information about HDGC directly on their cancer Genetics page. They will review the request with the website Editorial Board.
• 06/12/09 Karen Chelcun’s contacts and efforts resulted in the publication of an interview with researcher Parry Guilford in the New Zealand Listener and a ten minute segment on TV New Zealand about HDGC.
• 06/01/09 Cindy Chelcun placed an informational display board about HDGC in the Associated Bank, Stevens Point, WI throughout the month of June.

May 2009

• 05/26/09 The Be Strong Hearted website is now listed as a resource for GeneReview’s Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer entry! To see the listing, from the GeneTests home page (www.genetests.org), click on GeneReviews on the navigation bar at the top of the page, then search for the disease Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer. Click on the Resources box next to the disease name.
• 05/18/09 Karen Chelcun was contacted by GeneReviews to determine our interest in having BeStrongHearted.org listed as a resource in the GeneReviews entry on Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer. GeneReviews is an online publication of the University of Washington, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and is freely available on the GeneTests website (www.genetests.org). GeneReviews entries focus on the use of genetic testing in patient diagnosis, management and genetic counseling, and are expert-authored and peer-reviewed.
• 05/16/09 Karen Chelcun contacted Choose Hope (www.ChooseHope.com) to request that the Be Strong Hearted website be added as a link on their Support/Link page. We have since been added.

April 2009

• 04/24/09 Karen Chelcun’s photo was used in a Channel 5 Boston MGH Cancer Center public service message.
• 04/21/09 Karen Chelcun initiated a dialog with the National Cancer Institute about the coverage of HDGC on their website.
• 04/17/09 Cindy Chelcun shared the link to our website with the genetic counselor at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. The counselor will share the link with colleagues and with families that she works with in the future.
• 04/15/09 Karen Chelcun participated in a Cancer Genetics class panel at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Clinical Genetics Center. The audience included eleven students, one postdoctoral fellow, and two genetics counselors. The panel discussion is designed to provide the genetics counseling graduate students with a realistic view of the experiences faced by families with hereditary cancer risks.
• 04/01/09 Karen Chelcun was interviewed for an article published in Today’s Wisconsin Woman titled “A Proactive Approach can Save Your Life…and Your Child’s.”

March 2009

• 03/01/09 Karen Chelcun was interviewed for an article titled “Pay Attention to the Pathologist Behind the Curtain” for the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center publication Synergy. The article is about the importance of pathology in patient care.

February 2009

• 02/27/09 Karen Chelcun is working with a NZ journalist to facilitate publication of an article in NZ about HDGC.  Karen, two NZ journalists and researcher Parry Guilford will work together in order to publish an article in a popular NZ publication for the purpose of education and pointing out the relevance of research beyond affected HDGC families. The story will likely include information about families worldwide affected by HDGC.
• 02/26/09 Massachusetts General Hospital published thearticle in Synergy magazine about the importance of pathology in patient care.
• 02/15/09 The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC published an article called Striking first, surgically, about the Chelcun family and HDGC.

January 2009

• 01/00/09 Greg Chelcun educated another student nurse, who then chose HDGC as her research presentation topic for her nursing class, to be given in February, 2009. Woo hoo!
• 01/00/09 Greg Chelcun educated about 15 student nurses at St. Michael’s Hospital in Stevens Point while hospitalized there with pneumonia.
• 01/00/09 Karen Chelcun launches a Facebook Cause for Be Strong Hearted with the hope of reaching thousands of people to raise awareness and educate the public about HDGC. Join the Facebook Cause!

November 2008

• 11/21/08 Karen Chelcun and Cindy Chelcun met with Sue Ann Thompson, Founder and President of the Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation and her daughter, Finance Director Tommi Thompson. More news about this exciting new relationship coming soon!
• 11/02/08 Another HDGC patient posted our website on her CaringBridge site.

October 2008

• 10/25/08 The Boston Globe published an article titled “When courage is the cure” about the Chelcun family and HDGC.
• 10/21/08 Karen Chelcun visited the new Gilda’s Club in Middleton, WI and met with the Program Director to discuss HDGC education issues. Gilda’s will permit us to place our brochure (when we create one) with their stomach cancer educational materials. In addition, as their programs expand they will contact Karen to participate in an educational program about genetic cancers.
• 10/14/08 During a visit to the hospital for additional nutrition Greg Chelcun presented an impromptu mini-seminar to 25 nursing students at St. Michael’s Hospital in Stevens Point, WI… Once a teacher, always a teacher.

September 2008

• 09/29/08 Cindy Chelcun provided website info to an ER physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Stevens Point, WI
• 09/29/08 Karen Chelcun met with Dr. Lauwers, a pathologist in Boston, for photos to appear with an article that she was interviewed for earlier in the month about the importance of pathology in patient care. The article is to appear in a publication called Synergy and will be posted on this website after publication.
• 09/28/08 Cindy Chelcun provided website info to a surgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital in Stevens Point, WI and to RN at the hospital who expressed strong interest.
• 09/28/08 Greg Chelcun provided website information to a Hospitalist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Stevens Point, WI
• 09/26/08 Cindy Chelcun provided website and educational info (Stanford article) to Physicians Assistant at Marshfield Clinic OB/GYN department and to Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner at St. Michael’s Hospital in Stevens Point, WI (plus an additional APNP at St. Michael’s on 09/29).
• 09/23/08 Johanna Chelcun presented her Power Point lecture to ten residents and attending physicians at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, CT.
• 09/21/08 Greg Chelcun manned a booth with HDGC info as part of a Cancer Survivors Expo for the 18th Annual American Cancer Society Team Schierl Companies Walk-Run event in Stevens Point, WI
• 09/20/28 Cindy Chelcun delivered Stanford article, Mass General article (Chung, Yoon, Lauwers and Patel) and educational opportunities information to the North Central WI Chapter of Oncology Nursing Society’s “Celebrating Cancer Survivors Expo”, jointly sponsored by the University of WI Stevens Point in Stevens Point, WI
• 09/12/08 Karen Chelcun posted our website on her CaringBridge site.
• 09/08/08 Cindy Chelcun posted our website to the Total Gastrectomy Support Group.
• 09/08/08 Cindy Chelcun posted our website to the Stomach Oncology Support Group (c/o ACOR Association of Cancer Online Resources) which is a support group for stomach cancer patients and caregivers.
• 09/08/08 Cindy Chelcun sent repeat e-mails to Stand Up To Cancer re: sharing our story and getting grant proposal info to HDGC researchers.
• 09/08/08 Cindy Chelcun posted our website to the Stomach Oncology Support Group (c/o ACOR Association of Cancer Online Resources) which is a support group for stomach cancer patients and caregivers.
• 09/08/08 Cindy Chelcun posted our website to the Total Gastrectomy Support Group.

August 2008

• 08/28/08 Karen Chelcun posted our website to the HDGC Support Group.
• 08/01/08 Cindy Chelcun e-mailed a request to Stand Up To Cancer to include an article in their online journal/newsletter about HDGC. In addition, she e-mailed a request for research proposal procedures which can be forwarded on to key researchers studying HDGC.She iswaiting for response.
• 08/01/08 Cindy Chelcun contacted the American Cancer Society via e-mail to request more detailed information and attention to HDGC on their online cancer resources.  She received a reply that her request is being evaluated by the responsible department.