According to the American Cancer Society, one in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in his or her lifetime, and 600,000 Americans will die of some form of the disease this year. Perhaps even more alarming: Certain cancers, like breast cancer and colorectal cancer, are on the rise among younger adults.
But, as the society notes, Americans have made significant strides against the disease, as evidenced by a 34% decline in overall U.S. cancer mortality since 1991, averting an estimated 4.8 million cancer deaths. Improved early detection, targeted treatments like immunotherapy and reduced smoking rates have driven five-year survival rates for all cancers combined to 69%. Still, whether it’s research into new treatments or providing free rides to those treatments, fighting cancer takes money.
On Thursday, May 7, the American Cancer Society raised more than $200,000 with its “Women Leading the Way to Wellness” event at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich that brought together the world of fiction and stories that were all too real.
Some 500 attendees saluted Community Impact Volunteer award winner Julie Stein and Choose Your Champion award winner Brittany Thompson, who shared their different but equally defiant approaches to the disease.
New Canaan resident Julie Stein was 47 when she was diagnosed with DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) breast cancer, the earliest form, or stage 0, of the disease, in which abnormal cells in the milk duct have not spread to the surrounding tissue. After initially being floored, Stein went into what an event video called “Julie mode.” She decided to have a double mastectomy with reconstruction.
“I just said, this is what I’m doing,” she told the New Canaanite in 2023. “I am going to beat this…. And then, God willing, once I’m over the hump, I’m gonna dedicate my time, my resources, to raising awareness, raising funds and helping everyone, because breast cancer affects everybody.”
Stein went on to found Project Pink New Canaan, a fundraiser that turns downtown New Canaan pink each October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, raising more than $30,000 for breast cancer research since the fundraiser’s inception. She also sits on the board of the Greenwich-based Breast Cancer Alliance.
While cancer is no match for this dynamo, there is one fear that Stein hasn’t overcome and that is public speaking. So her acceptance speech was delivered by husband Jeff as she and their children, Karly and Ryder, looked on.
Choose Your Champion honoree Thompson was hit with cancer in two different ways, both threatening the life of her second child, daughter Mara. Thompson herself was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant with Mara. But her doctor was convinced that she could bring the baby successfully to term, which she did.
But cancer wasn’t finished with Thompson. At age 3, Mara was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In each case, Thompson told the audience, mindset, movement and nourishment were among the keys to battling cancer twice. Thompson’s yoga mat, for instance, was a constant companion during Mara’s treatment.
Mara, now 4, and brother Ford, 7, stood beside their mother as she accepted her award.
The event switched gears for a panel discussion with writers Alisyn Camerota, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Wally Lamb and Dorothy Lyman. Camerota – the Emmy Award-winning former CNN anchor and author of the new novel “Combat Love,” about sex, drugs and (punk) rock’n’ roll on the Jersey shore of the 1980s, served as moderator for the panelists, who shared tales from their childhoods and working lives, some of which have found their way into their fiction.
Harris said her debut novel, “The Other Black Girl,” a New York Times best seller that became a Hulu series, was inspired by her own experience in the publishing world, where hers was often the only Black face. What she discovered, however, was the race does not define friendship.
Lamb, a northeastern Connecticut author of more New York Times best sellers (“She’s Come Undone,” “The River Is Waiting”), described how growing up surrounded by female relatives inspired his female characters. (Being the only boy had its advantages: He was the sultan whenever his sisters played harem girls, which he said made for quite the story when he made his first confession to prepare for his first Holy Communion.)
Lyman, author of the plays “Upstate” and “The Bleak Midwinter,” is probably better known to audiences as an actress. The Washington Depot, Connecticut, resident won two Emmy Awards as Opal Sue Gardner, the feisty, loving though meddlesome pal to Erica Kane on the ABC soap opera “All My Children,” continuing in the role at least initially as she did prime-time duty as the flirtatious Naomi Harper on CBS’ “Mama’s Family.” After the latter ended, Lyman took up producing and directing, notching 75 episodes of “The Nanny” with Fran Drescher.
The panelists’ conversation demonstrated that life is not only stranger than fiction; it’s inevitably the stuff of it.
