Meg Gaines, ovarian cancer survivor and national advocate for cancer patients, will deliver this year’s John Kenneth Kyle lecture “The Best of Times and the Worst of Times: Getting Health Care in America” at 7 pm on Mon., April 27, in the Summers Auditorium (James R. Connor University Center).
She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that had also infected her liver. Her doctors told her the cancer was inoperable and that she should go home and think about the quality of her remaining days. The mother of two toddlers, Gaines felt that diagnosis was unacceptable and conducted a national search for treatment. She eventually was treated in Texas and remains healthy today.
Gaines’ story reminds me of the affecting TV ad I’ve seen for Cancer Treatment Centers of America by pancreatic cancer survivor Peggy Kessler, in which she says she was basically told by her doctor to go home and prepare to die. But after working with Cancer Treatment Centers of America she was told she had no expiration date.
Andersen Library has resources on topics related to this lecture. For example, if you are interested in reading other cancer survivor’s stories, there are books like It’s not about the bike: my journey back to life by Lance Armstrong (3rd-floor Main Collection GV1051.A76 A3 2000) and Deanna Favre’s Don’t bet against me!: beating the odds against breast cancer and in life (2nd-floor Browsing Books Collection RC280.B8 F38 2007). The web site of the National Cancer Institute also has information about different types of cancer. If you are researching particular kinds of cancers there are books such as Dr. Susan Love’s breast book (3rd-Floor Main Collection RG491 .L68 2005). And if you’re interested in access to health care in the United States, there are books including Critical: what we can do about the health-care crisis (3rd-floor Main Collection RA395.A3 .D375 2008) and Health care politics, policy, and services: a social justice analysis (3rd-floor Main Collection RA395.A3 A4795 2007). The Library’s article databases can yield relevant reading also, such as “Awash in information, patients face a lonely, uncertain road” in the New York Times (Aug. 14, 2005, p. 1).
Please ask a librarian for assistance in finding materials.
The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!
