Share Your Hereditary Cancer Story Today

 

A Little Art For Earth Day

Having been born and raised in Arizona, I took for granted that the solitude and wide-open vistas I experienced growing up would always be there. But the wilderness that I loved so much -- what I call the beautiful quiet -- has all but disappeared.

I could share so many stories about the magic and wonder of nature and open spaces, but I’ll just leave you with one of my paintings. 

There’s more about me, my art, and the desert on another post.

DNA, Hereditary Cancer, and Sharing Your Story with the White House

As a hereditary cancer widower and a parent of a BRCA2 previvor, this is my grassroots effort to help prevent other families from losing a loved one to a cancer that could have been prevented. Please join me by sharing your hereditary cancer story with the White House and on social media on DNA Day, April 25th.   

Here is the link:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/cancermoonshot/share-your-story/

Sharing your story and any ideas will help the Cancer Moonshot focus on what will help the most in preventing cancer.

No matter what your political affiliation, please speak up. Nobody should die of a preventable cancer. Nobody!

Connecting Family Trees

 

It's fitting that genealogy should begin with “gene,” because it is genes that truly connect families. Distant genetic relatives may have more in common with you than just a shared ancestor, and that knowledge may help prevent cancer and other diseases. Finding your roots and branching out can be enlightening and sometimes life-saving.

Learn more at www.ConnectMyVariant.org

(Created for CMV as a volunteer hereditary cancer awareness and prevention advocate.)

Zebrafish, Humans, and DNA

With Earth Day (4/22) and DNA Day (4/25) both being in April, I thought I would have a little fun illustrating some natural science for grown-ups like I did professionally for children’s publications for years. And because a lot of people just don’t know peas about genetics.

Also see...

DNA Fun -- The Platypus

  

Of course, it’s far more complicated – there are differences in hox genes, proteins, etc., etc., and etc. But all life is connected, every living thing shares some DNA with every other living thing on Earth.

With Earth Day and DNA Day both being in April, I thought I would have a little fun illustrating science for grown-ups like I did professionally for children’s publications for years. And because a lot of people just don’t know peas about genetics.

Watch for more art and DNA fun over the next few weeks.

BRCA Genes Simplified

aware·ness (ə-ˈwer-nəs) noun  “Conscious knowledge.” Preventing hereditary cancer starts with awareness. Here is my second graphic in what will be a series illustrating the basics of genes and genetic mutations to hopefully help raise awareness about what can be a life-saving subject.

I want to give a big thank you and shout-out to Michelle Springer, a certified genetic counselor, for being my technical reviewer on this project.

You can download a PDF of this infographic at https://genetionary.org/brca/

Again, like my first illustration in the series, I created this infographic with a heavy heart and with the hope that this information might help spare someone a cancer diagnosis. My wife died of a hereditary cancer (TNBC) that was caused by a BRCA2 mutation. Her cancer diagnosis and untimely death could have been prevented. Unfortunately, because of medical privacy laws, information about her family’s germline mutation went unshared for years. Changing laws, no matter how outdated or adverse, can be difficult. So that has led me to use my many years of experience as a professional illustrator to try and raise awareness with my art.