Helping you take charge of your health Home About us Newsletter Shop CNCA Contact us Subscribe
>
Why Aren't YOU a Bone Marrow Donor? An Interview With Susan
Brecker, Producer of More To Live For
By CNCA on Apr 29 2011 | 0 Comments
For most healthy people, awareness about leukemia, a cancer of the
body's blood-generating tissues (including the lymphatic system and Search
bone marrow), usually begins after someone they know has been
Enter search term Search
diagnosed with it.
Include comments in search
And, if the flavor of leukemia that friend or family member has is
particularly acute and aggressive, it will likely require chemotherapy
treatments and a bone marrow/stem cell transplantation.
CNCA Monthly Special
The trick is finding the right bone marrow match, a needle-in-a-mile-
wide-haystack process made even harder largely by one huge fallacy: Save $7 on Joint Complex PRO -
An assumption among the healthy that testing and donating bone professional strength synergistic
marrow is too complicated and very painful. support for healthy joints! Shop now.
Testing is as simple -- even for needlephobes -- as rubbing the inside
of one's cheek briefly with a long cotton swab. Donating is a bit more
invasive, but it's similar to donating blood.
Unfortunately, the need for bone marrow donors far, far outstrips the participation which is what attracted Susan
25% of Supplements
Brecker to a 2008 New York Times piece about entertainment entrepreneur and leukemia survivor James Contaminated, Subpotent
Chippendale meeting Klaus Keiser, his bone marrow donor who repairs bikes more than 5,000 miles away in a
small German town west of Berlin. Recent independent quality testing of
1600 supplements revealed that 25%
In James, Susan found a kindred soul. Despite organized bone marrow drives all over the world and constant were subpotent, contaminated, or both.
searches through the International Bone Marrow Registry, her husband, 15-time Grammy winning jazz legend See the list here.
and tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker, lost his battle with leukemia little more than two years after being
diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome at the too young age of 57.
No surprise, Susan and James bonded, and soon did a "Vulcan mind-meld" on how to build awareness about
how easy it is for people to be tested for and become a bone marrow donor. The result eventually became More subscribe to this
To Live For, an 83-minute documentary directed by Noah Hutton and co-produced by Susan and James that's BLOG
winding its way across America via special screenings and festival showings.
sign up for our
What follows is a short interview with Susan about her life with leukemia and a video trailer of their documentary.
NEWSLETTER
Find future showings of this enlightening, entertaining and very hopeful film by visiting the MoreToLiveForFilm.com
website.
follow us on
Learn more about the various forms of leukemia, by reading Understanding Leukemia, available as a free PDF FACEBOOK
download from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
follow us on
TWITTER
About This Blog
Welcome to CNCA’s health
blog. Since 2002, CNCA has been
helping thousands of people improve
their health and well-being with
our premium line of nutritional
supplements. We update the blog five
days a week, so please visit often and
send us feedback. If it matters to you,
it matters to us! Learn more about the
CNCA difference.
Q: Considering the fight that both of you had been through with leukemia what made you both want to
revisit it by making a documentary?
CNCA is on Twitter
I think that after one has faced a terminal illness, you live with that your whole life. So in a sense, we have not
May 30. 12:13
revisited our struggle, but have continued to expand and integrate the experience. Knowing how easy it is to save
Twitter Only Savings: Get15% off your
lives, and how largely unknown this fact is to most people, we felt that there was no choice in making this
order this Memorial Day weekend
information available to everyone who would hear it.
only. Enter TWEET at checkout to
Q: More To Live For is indeed a rich, multi-layered story about winning and losing the battle with save. http://dld.bz/JR8F #discount
leukemia. What really made this story click for us: The addition of Seun Adebiyi, the Yale Law School
grad training to become Nigeria's first Winter Olympian when he was diagnosed with lymphoblastic May 30. 09:13
lymphoma and stem cell leukemia. How did you two learn more about him? Cut your cancer risks while grilling:
http://dld.bz/gN3q #cancer #health
Noah (Hutton, director) and I were introduced to Seun by Katarina Harf, the vice-president of DKMS Americas,
#nutrition #BBQ #recipes
Seun had come to Katarina for help in finding a match, so he might have a life-saving transplant. We were
looking for a person who was at this same stage of their journey. When we met Seun, we instantly knew he would
be the right person through which we could tell this part of the story. May 29. 14:13
Twitter Exclusive: Save 15% on your
Q: Unlike other documentaries and feature films we've seen about cancer, we were struck by the very order. Memorial Day weekend only.
hopeful tone of More To Live For, and the lack of "heroes," save for Klaus Keiser who merely did what we Enter TWEET at checkout to save.
should be all doing: Becoming bone marrow donors. Was this an intentional decision? http://dld.bz/JR8F #vitamins #save
Again, hand-in-hand with having an illness like leukemia exists the
hope that a cure will be found. While one struggles with doctors, intense Follow me on Twitter
physical symptoms, health insurance, etc., one is always cognizant of
the hope one needs to continue onward every day. Hope is a natural
part of any cancer story.
Blogroll
Q: We got the bone marrow donorship message loudly and clearly.
Cancer and Careers
Are audiences responding as you two and Noah hoped they
would? The Cancer Warrior
Empowher.com
We are completely thrilled. It is our mission to raise the awareness
about the need for new donors, and we are enormously gratified to see Julie's Health Club
people registering to become donors after each screening. So far, 100 percent of the eligible audience members Kairol Rosenthal's Ever...
have been tested, which is huge. We know that many more matches will be made and lives saved as a result of
Mesothelioma
our efforts.
SelfGrowth.com
Q: Your director, Noah Hutton, did a little bit of everything for this project. Tell us more about Noah's
journey to find creative, entertaining ways to weave these three very different stories into one very
realistic, but hopeful, film.
Noah is a thoughtful filmmaker. He has a natural ability to tell stories about people, where they are respected and
Helping to Find a Cure
valued on film. When we presented him with our ideas for the film, we spoke about ways to best convey our CNCA is committed to making life
message. better for cancer patients around the
world. We donate a portion of every
Noah conceived of the idea of the three perspectives, and found a way to capture the essence of the three men. I
sale to The Gateway for Cancer
believe it is his skill as a filmmaker and editor that empowers the viewer to experience these stories as separate
Research, an organization dedicated
but connected.
to offering new treatment options for
Q: Part of your foundation's mission to raise money for this cause is to combine screenings with patients -- TODAY!
performances by some of the greatest pop and jazz performers around, something Michael would be
profoundly proud of. How close is this to becoming a reality? Or, what about a benefit CD?
We are beginning to travel the globe with this film, which include jazz and music festivals. Michael was not only a
great artist, but a much beloved man in the music industry. We are so blessed with being able to carry his
Category list
message to his fans and colleagues around the globe who loved him and his music. Allergies (8)
Alternative Medicine (23)
Thanks for the idea about a benefit CD… We’ll think about it!
Cancer Research and Prevention
Share | (128)
Cancer Treatment (4)
Comments (0)
Caregiving (3)
Tags: more to live for, bone marrow, michael brecker, leukemia
Children's Health (80)
Categories: Cancer Research and Prevention , Cancer Treatment , Pop Culture
Conventional Medicine (48)
Emotions (33)
Environmental Health (99)
Related posts Exercise & Fitness (63)
General Health (174)
There’s More to Healthy Bones than Calcium
Government (41)
When it comes to building and maintaining strong bones as we age, we hear a lot about getting enough calcium and vitamin D. But
Healthy Aging (68)
research suggests that many other nutrients are also beneficial for bone...
Heart Health (38)
How Virgin Olive Oil Plays With Your Genes Men's Health (157)
With research growing about the many health benefits connected with following a Mediterranean diet, Spanish researchers may have
Mental Health (40)
discovered a genetic reason why it works so well for Europeans. And, it...
Nutrition (195)
CNCA at the Livestrong Challenge Austin Nutrition - Vitamins/Minerals/Herbs
More than 3,500 cyclists, runners and walkers from the United States and Canada helped raise more than $4.2 million to fight cancer (42)
during the final stop of the Livestrong Challenge Series in Austin O... Pain Management (18)
Pet Health (18)
Pop Culture (17)
Research (81)
Sexual Health (2)
Skin Care (3)
Stress Management (3)
Supplement Quality (38)
Women's Health (198)
Home About us Contact us Subscribe Sign in
The statements above have not been evaluated by the US Food & Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition, including
cancer. All information is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions.