Due to an old smoking habit and new screening guidelines, Kaye Beals’ primary care doctor suggested she undergo a lung cancer screening at a routine physical last December. The 80-year-old from Mt. Zion agreed to the screening, and it showed…
You might exercise to lose weight or prevent heart disease, but did you know that exercise can also help to reduce your risk of certain types of cancer? “Regular exercise is beneficial to your overall health. It reduces inflammation and…
“You know, it was a pleasure to come to treatment after I saw how the staff treat me, how friendly they were to me … I actually looked forward to coming here every day.” Retired farmer, bear hunter and baking…
“I think a positive attitude, along with treatment, is the key to success.” Bernetta “Bernie” Hoagland has no time for cancer. Nonetheless, a cancer diagnosis has a way of causing the busiest person to pause. “When you first hear that…
Issues with reflux? Male over the age of 50? April is National Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month, and this type of cancer affects about 17,000 people per year. Risk factors can also include obesity, family history, heavy alcohol or tobacco use…
Don Williams, 67, is on the survivor side of a lung cancer battle, thanks to the expertise of his medical teams at Memorial Regional Cancer Center and SIU Medicine. “I am grateful to be alive,” he said. “Early detection is…
There’s never a good time to get the call. Kim Hart was in the office at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday in 2009. She was the only one left. Her husband, Jim, was out of town. She was looking forward…
Six weeks every morning. Day in, day out. Tamiko Bilbro-Nicholson’s husband changed the dressing for the open wound on her breast after infection set in from cosmetic surgery. Even though the 46-year-old Pawnee woman’s breast cancer was caught early, a…
Telling your children that you have a life-threatening illness is tough enough the first time. Laura Beth Pemberton had to do it twice. Three years before she discovered a lump in her left breast in June 2017, which led to…
Debbie Thomas was not going to schedule her yearly mammogram in 2016, but her husband Tim had other ideas. “Every year, I have such a horrible time with mammograms on my right side,” the 61-year-old unit clerk at Taylorville Memorial…