Filed under: Regular Contributors, Philip Patston, Themes, Tumour Humour, The UpDown Report, Campaign Watch

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….then give a little bit Mo’

As most of you know by now, Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men.

Philip Patston is certainly doing his part to raise awareness.

Now help him raise the dough.

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Filed under: Regular Contributors, Philip Patston, Themes, Cerebral Ballsy, Wheelchairman of the Board, Tumour Humour, The UpDown Report, Campaign Watch

“Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men. Mo Bros, supported by their Mo Sistas, start Movember (November 1st) clean shaven and then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache. During Movember, each Mo Bro effectively becomes a walking billboard for men’s health and, via their Mo, raises essential funds and awareness.”

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Visit Philip Patston’s MoSpace page >>
And please donate, donate, DONATE

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Filed under: Themes, Tumour Humour

So. WOW. Planet Cancer is now officially a program of the Lance Armstrong Foundation!

Congratulations Heidi!

*Get your slammin' Planet Cancer gear at cafepress.com/planetcancer

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5 related Irked posts that may brighten your day:
Fat Man On Trek to Conquer Cancer—a 250km bikeride
Turning Heads—Portraits of Women Bald From Chemotherapy
Derek Caine—Playin’ the Haemo Blues
Chung-Pin Lin—International winemaker and vineyard consultant
Molly the Pony—Symbol of Hope

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries

Chung-Pin Lin, who lost his sight to retinal cancer at age two, is winemaker at Waipara’s Mountford Estate, and a vineyard consultant in Australia, Europe and the United States.

He said the blindness had not affected his winemaking skills, although the perception he had heightened senses was incorrect.

“I certainly do use the other four senses more because when you lose one you do tend to compensate a bit more, but to say I’m better because of the sight loss, that’s actually not true,” he said.

“You still have to be born with the talent for tasting and have the understanding of the wine industry. It’s more the fact that I’m good at what I do.”

However, talent did not always result in tolerance from others.

Lin said he told classmates while studying at Lincoln University in 1995 that his goal was to make the best pinot noir in New Zealand.

“Quite a lot of my classmates laughed. It was not a very good response.”

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Read the rest of this article

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Filed under: Themes, Tumour Humour, Campaign Watch

Quoting Hal Newman, current managing editor at BigMedicine.ca, former firefighter and paramedic with 3+ decades of experience in emergency services who “reinvented” himself after leaving the streets by becoming a Network Accelerant:

If you had to pick someone who would be the least likely to become addicted to road cycling more than 30 km each and every day at speed you need not look any further than me. So, it’s a bit surreal to think that come July 2010, I will be joining thousands of other cyclists riding the 250 km [in two days] from Montreal to Quebec City to raise funds to support the fight against cancer. I’m riding for Abraham, Rose, Mimi, David, Susan, Gil, Mario and many many others who fought cancer right up until their dying breaths. We say the words carefully. Sometimes in a hushed whisper. Sometimes spat out like a foul taste in our mouths. “Cancer” … “The Big CA.” So many family members and friends and colleagues who have waged pitched battles against cancer. Occasionally there are wins—and we celebrate those in grand style although truth be told, once cancer stages a home invasion it never really leaves. Even when it’s gone for good, we all wonder if cancer will find another way to come back into our lives. More often than not there are losses. And we mark those with sorrow and tears and a lasting hatred of a disease that shows no mercy and knows no boundaries. I spent a good chunk of my career as a paramedic/ firefighter. Cancer has become inexorably linked with those who are on the frontlines of emergency services. I’ve gone to the hospital to pick-up a friend/ colleague after his first round of chemo and I’ll always remember his reaction to being able to walk, albeit weakly, out the door under his own power. It was a cold, crisp day and yet he had his window down for the ride home so he could take in the sunshine and the wind. His cancer was beaten back and he’s still a part of our lives. I’m riding for Norm and Don and not enough others who have found a way to beat cancer. Norm Rooker, my brother-of-another-mother, wrote about learning he had bladder cancer . . .

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Continue reading Hal’s stunningly beautiful essay

And…

DONATE, DONATE, DONATE

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Filed under: Themes, Bum Deal

According to Philip Stern writing October 9th on the Homeless Man Speaks website, Tony Clemens’ heart was “a thin beat away from not working at all. The cardiologists are doing everything they can. Thank god for socialized medicine. Tony says many, many thanks for all the good wishes and prayers.”

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Then, writing October 16th in a post titled On the street once more, Philip states: “Tony was sprung—so to say—yesterday. He’s back at his old location [on Roncesvalles Avenue]. His face has good colour (it’s autumn, after all). I bought him a coffee from Alternative Grounds and I gave him a toonie so he could buy a bagel from Mabel’s.

Learn more at HomelessManSpeaks.com

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Filed under: Themes, Tumour Humour

…The winning filmmaker will be awarded the Amazing Grace Award for Best Short Film, a $1,500 cash prize, and flown to Toronto to present his/her film at the Breast Fest Film Festival, November 20-22, 2009.

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breastfestfilmfest.com/watchvote.shtml

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Filed under: Themes, Tumour Humour

Quoting Emily Ward, who works with the Canadian Cancer Society, posting on the myplanet.planetcancer.org message boards:

As part of our “Join the Fight” movement, we’ve been asking people to finish the sentence “You might think you’re tough cancer, but…” I would love to hear your responses. If you need inspiration, you can check out other people’s comments on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/canadiancancersociety.

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Join the discussion at myplanet.planetcancer.org
Learn more at planetcancer.org

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Filed under: Themes, Bum Deal

Quoting Philip Stern, writing on HomelessManSpeaks.com:

Hi Everyone, I just visited Tony at St. Joe’s. He’s got cancer, probably in the lungs, though it’s not certain if it’s in one lung or two—or even which lung. While I was there, the doctors took him for an x-ray, but I don’t know the results—if any. In addition, he’s got heart problems, and an ugly hernia protruding from his upper abdomen.

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Our thoughts, prayers, support, and deepest deepest condolences are with Tony during this difficult time.

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Keep up to date at HomelessManSpeaks.com

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*PLEASE NOTE: Tony’s on the 4th floor of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto, Room #4M16. If you’d like to visit him, he’d be delighted. Any ready-to-eat food you can bring him (only stuff that is easily chewable) will be very much appreciated, as his appetite is well beyond what hospital meal portions can fulfill. Before you visit, check the hospital visiting times and associated regulations at stjoe.on.ca/patients/visitor/index.php.

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Filed under: Uncategorized

Quoting Chris Foresman, writing on Ars Technica:

We have discussed the advancements Apple has made in accessibility to Mac OS X and even the iPhone in the past, but recent examples show that Apple’s attention to detail in technologies technologies like VoiceOver and Voice Control can make all the difference in the world for users with speech or sight impairments. These technologies are earning Apple awards and the appreciation of users and further separate Apple from the competition. It was just a few weeks ago when we noted comments from industrial designer Mike Calvo, whose company Serotek is involved in accessibility design, on how well accessibility is engineered into the iPhone. “Apple understands that accessibility should be about far more than developing custom solutions which pay lip service to the idea of accessibility but detract from the out-of-box experience enjoyed by everyone else,” he wrote in his assessment of the iPhone. Now, after the release of iPhone OS 3.1, the Mac-cessibility Network noted that Apple has added an additional 16 improvements to the accessibility features of Apple’s mobile devices. These include controls for cutting and pasting text or even editing video using VoiceOver and Voice Control, reading PDF files, and using Voice Control over a Bluetooth headset. The continued attention to detail shows that Apple doesn’t take accessibility lightly. This attention to detail has also earned Apple an award from the National Federation for the Blind. Tomorrow, during its first ever Web Accessibility Day conference, the NFB will give an award to Apple recognizing the company for making the iPhone—a device largely defined by its graphical user interface that works with a touchscreen that has no haptic feedback—accessible and useable for those with visual impairments. In addition to recognition from the NFB, though, Apple’s technology has been recognized by some users recently for enabling them to communicate without the need for costly specialized systems. Users are finding that an iPhone with some specialized software, or even an off-the-shelf Mac with VoiceOver, can replace expensive, clunky text-to-speech devices for far less money. For example, The New York Times detailed the plight of a San Francisco woman who lost her voice due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She recently supplanted her text-to-speech computer for an iPhone loaded with a $150 text-to-speech app, which lets her “wear her voice around her neck while snuggling with her 5-year-old son.” That story prompted a letter to the editor from none other than famed film critic Roger Ebert, who lost his voice to throat cancer. He told the Times, “After trying an $8,000 custom device with little computing power and a small, dim screen, I tried the built-in speech software on my MacBook and found it much more practical.” He uses the text-to-speech capability to discuss online news with his wife, for instance. While the expensive custom devices have other features, such as e-mail and Web browsing, disabled for complex insurance reasons, Ebert notes that “[a]nyone who uses a computer and has lost the power of speech knows that e-mail becomes invaluable.” It’s easy to point to a list of such features and say, “Great job, Apple,” but unless you have ever had to rely on the features, it’s difficult to understand just how important they are. Expensive, specialized devices may always be necessary for some users, but Apple’s focus on accessibility (even iPods have VoiceOver) could make an iPhone or a Mac all that some people need. The personal testimony of such users really drives home how disabilities can make computing and communicating a serious challenge, and how critical technologies like VoiceOver, Voice Control, and Universal Access are to giving these users the ability to participate in what the rest of us simply take for granted.

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Further reading: maccessibility.net/resources

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