Just Around the Corner!

We are busy this week making last minute plans for the Heather Ridley Fleeman Battle for Hope scheduled for this Saturday, May 1st at Old Tiger Stadium in Bentonville. Banners to pick up, prizes to get sorted and assigned, volunteers to train... it's a little crazy, but it's going to be a great event!

If you don't know already, the Battle for Hope is named in honor of a young woman from Bentonville who lost her battle with colon cancer at the young age of 28. She had struggled with bowel issues for several years before she was finally diagnosed with Stage IV Colorectal Cancer. It wasn't suspected due to her young age and the absence of a family history of the disease. The race was created to raise awareness of this deadly cancer - the 2nd deadliest form cancer affecting men and women in the U.S. (lung cancer is #1) and one of the most preventable and detectable.

Hope Cancer Resources offers free colon cancer screening packets annually during Colon Cancer Awareness Month in March, but throughout the year we also have a program to assist the uninsured and underinsured to receive colon cancer screenings. Too often, insurance companies will not pay for a colonoscopy if the patient is under the age of 50, placing the burden of payment - which can amount to around $1,000.00 - upon the patient. How many of us have that kind of cash lying around? Our Save-A-Life program tries to alleviate some of that stress.

There are, of course, outward signs of colon cancer. They include blood in the stool, unusual weight loss, and extreme fatigue. But by the time the patient encounters these symptoms, it can be too late for complete recovery. That's why we are so committed to helping people get screened early, and often. The kits we offer are discreet and can be taken to a lab by the patient themselves.

So, what are you doing this weekend? We have a slight chance of getting a little rain on Saturday, but nothing like we had last Saturday. We will be there, rain or shine. Please join us to support our assistance and educational programs, and to bring attention to the need for early colon cancer detection! See you there!

Happenings!!

We have a lot to be thankful for at Hope Cancer Resources! Our staff and the amazing programs they administrate in Northwest Arkansas, the painters who are making our building look spiffy inside (the smell, however, we are not so grateful for...) and the landscapers who are cleaning up the outside, gifts from people who believe in our mission, and of course - our volunteers!

Tomorrow night we are welcoming our volunteers to our office to treat them to dinner to demonstrate in a small way our immense gratitude for the work they do for us. We have several kinds of volunteers who work with us throughout the year, and they are all vital to our efforts to support the cancer patients of Northwest Arkansas. Visit our website to find out more about the opportunities we have available to make a difference in the lives of cancer patients in Northwest Arkansas.

Skin Cancer Screening Clinic - May 8, 2010

Do you know what skin cancer looks like? Or feels like? Have you been keeping an eye on a sore that won't heal or a mole that looks different than it did a few months ago? We have a free screening coming up on May 8 that you may be interested in. Call us at 479-361-5847 to schedule an appointment to come in to visit with local professionals to take a healthy step toward preventing skin cancer. You may not think that skin cancer would be as serious as some other forms of the disease, but in fact, Malignant Melanoma is extremely deadly, and it's an equal-opportunity disease - anyone, at any age, can get it. Get checked, and get the facts.

We were thrilled to get a call recently from the Global Transformation team at Walmart who submitted and received a Community Grant for us in the amount of $1,000.00. While it's always nice to receive a grant for $20,000 like the recent one from the Arkansas Cancer Coalition, we depend heavily on smaller donations to keep the programs and assistance flowing into our community. For example, $1,000 will provide 2-3 rent payments or 4-6 prescriptions for patients struggling to pay the bills, or 40 gas cards for patients being treated in NWA but living outside the area. We work hard to make every dollar count, and appreciate Walmart for having a corporate commitment to supporting their community and encouraging their employees to do the same.

Don't forget about our upcoming Heather Ridley-Fleeman Battle for Hope scheduled for May 1st at Old Tiger Stadium in Bentonville! Registrations are coming in fast and furious, and the last day for the pre-registration discount is this Friday. You find more info about the event and register online at the event website. Contact us if you have questions or need more information.

You Know the Why, Now Let's Talk About the How

If you scroll back through past blog posts on this site, you will be made fully aware of the reasons we do the work we do... why we come to work every day and work so hard and make an effort to spread the word about our services and educational programs. It's a no-brainer. That's the "Why" part of this equation.

Also in this blog, you might hear about a fundraising campaign that we held or a goal that was met or an event that went well. The reason we share the money stories is because they are the struts that hold up the structure of our success. In essence, they are the "How".

No non-profit organization can operate without the support of their community. If the organization is International, their community encompasses the whole planet. If the organization is National in scope, the community gets a little smaller and takes in the country in which they are located. Then you have regional organizations and state-wide organizations... but we are none of these things. Hope Cancer Resources is a regional organization, but only within the state of Arkansas. We serve Washington, Benton, Carroll and Madison counties, and patients who live or are being treated in those counties.

This means that when we are raising money to support our services, we are looking to local businesses and corporations - just like every other non-profit organization in Northwest Arkansas. Because there is stiff competition for those charitable dollars (there are over 800 non-profit agencies in Washington county alone!) we are truly honored when a company decides to put a little bit of their budget in our hands. It's a trust that we do not take lightly.

We hope you'll indulge us as we spend a minute focusing on the companies that are sponsoring our upcoming race, the Heather Ridley-Fleeman Battle for Hope. Many of them can share personal stories about an employee or friend of the company who had cancer and who inspires their giving. We are immensely grateful that many of them have sponsored this event for several years - some since it started six years ago! We hope that you will support them, and let them know you appreciate their support of us by sharing some of your purchasing power with them.

2010 Sponsors
Heather Ridley-Fleeman Battle for Hope

Gold 

Decatur Assembly of God

Silver

The Scotts Company

AMP Marketing

Highlands Oncology Group

Bronze

North Hills Endoscopy Center

America's Car Mart

Dr. Thad & Melanie Beck

Special Services Cleaning of Tennessee

PepsiCo

Hope

Walker & Associates Realtors, Inc.

Leigh Ann & Carl Walker

Outdoor Cap

Tyson Foods

McKee Foods

La-Z-Boy

Friend

Fleet Feet Sports

Hull Dermatology, P.A.

Decatur State Bank

Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas

NWA Gastroenterology Clinic

NWA Anesthesiology Associates
BBB Septic

Supporter

Threet Waste Management

NW Health System

Walker Brothers Insurance

Media Sponsors

Cox Media

NWA Newspapers

NWA Events Online

3W Magazine

Peekaboo Magazine

Hot Mix 101.9

Magic 107.9

KIX 104

93.3 The Eagle

Northwest Arkansas Cancer Registry

If you have browsed our website (and if you haven't - you should!) you may have seen that we have "the largest regional cancer registry in the state of Arkansas". Then you probably thought "Well, that's nice." But you probably also wondered what exactly it means to have a cancer registry at all, let alone the largest.

First, a basic definition:
A cancer registry is a data system designed to collect, manage and analyze health information of patients who have been diagnosed and treated for cancer. One goal of a cancer registry is to help assess and control the impact of cancer on the community where the registry is located. The primary goal is to improve care to cancer patients.


Where does the information come from?

The Northwest Arkansas Cancer Registry has been collecting cancer information since 1986 for all area hospitals and started collecting information from clinics and physicians' offices in 2001. the Registry reports this information to the Arkansas Central Cancer Registry for those hospitals and medical facilities that participate. Participation is required by law for all hospitals, clinics, physicians' offices or any facility that provides screening, diagnostic or therapeutic services for cancer patients. Information regarding Arkansas law and regulations can be found at Healthy Arkansas or by calling 1-800-462-0599.


How is the information used?
The information that is gathered is compared with that of other patients who have similar cancer diagnoses. Each facility can analyze their particular data and compare to all Northwest Arkansas data, Arkansas data and even data at the national level.

The NWA Cancer Registry can also release statistical information such as the frequency of certain types of cancer, demographic information such as age, sex and residence at the time of diagnosis, extent of disease at the time of diagnosis, types of treatment received and survival information. All information released is done so strictly for statistical purposes, no personal patient information is divulged to outside sources.


How current is the information we collect?
The Registry staff sends a brief annual questionnaire to participating physicians and former cancer patients. The questionnaires ask about the patient's vital and cancer status, any further cancer treatment, changes in address and new physicians the patient may be seeing. The Registry must keep up with any change in the patient's status in order to provide accurate reporting for statistical research and, ultimately, improved cancer care.

For more information on the Northwest Arkansas Cancer Registry, contact Pat Overton at 1-800-458-8954.