Howard Whitman

Sometimes great endeavors begin with one person asking questions.

Such was the case with Sharsheret, a national breast cancer support group for Jewish women, that had its humble beginnings in 2001 when a rising 28-year-old attorney named Rochelle Shoretz was diagnosed with breast cancer and began searching for help in the Jewish community.

“What she found in 2001 was that organizations were very happy to connect her with grandmothers and great aunts to talk about her diagnosis,” recalled Sharsheret Executive Director Elana Silber. “But her questions were very different. She had questions about caring for her children, about fertility, about balancing career and cancer, about intimacy, and she really couldn’t find anyone like her.”

A friend connected Rochelle with Lauryn, another woman with breast cancer who also had young children.

“Lauryn helped Rochelle through the beginning of her cancer journey,” Silber said, “and as Rochelle was going through treatment and chemotherapy, they looked at each other and said, ‘We can’t be the only two young Jewish women with breast cancer. Let’s start a peer support network. And if we can help five women a year, that would be a success.’”

Fast forward 15 years, and Sharsheret has grown exponentially from a small peer support network to 12 national programs helping more than 55,000 women, families, healthcare professionals, community leaders and students.

“We’ve grown quite a bit and have established ourselves as the go-to resource for young Jewish women facing breast cancer, as well as women and families facing ovarian cancer,” Silber said.

As to the organization’s name, Silber explained, “Sharsheret is Hebrew for ‘chain.’ It symbolizes the connections that we make. Everyone who connects to Sharsheret becomes a link in the chain.”

Beyond its roots as an alliance between young Jewish women, there is a strong link between its breast cancer focus and Judaism. “People often ask, ‘What’s Jewish about breast cancer?’ Our first response is genetics,” Silber said. “One in 40 Jews of Ashkenazi descent, both men and women, carries a BRCA gene mutation that significantly increases the risk of hereditary breast, ovarian and related cancers in Jewish families," Sibler said.

And although Sharsheret’s expertise is in young women in Jewish families, the group’s reach extends to women and families of all backgrounds. “There are women who may not identify as Jews participating in our programs,” Silber said.

“At Sharsheret, we’re more than a website,” Silber said. “You might find us online, but we have trained, skilled professionals who work one-on-one with those who reach out for support. (Our) team includes three social workers, a psychotherapist and a genetic counselor to speak individually with women, and all of our programs are customized to the needs of the women we serve.”

, connecting women newly diagnosed or at high-risk of developing breast cancer

, supporting women living with advanced breast cancer

, addressing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer

, providing individualized support, education and survivorship plans for young breast cancer survivors

, addressing the cosmetic side effects of treatment

, providing resources and support for caregivers and family members

, providing tailored resources and support for young women and families facing ovarian cancer

, developing local support groups and programs

Sharsheret also offers the following education and outreach programs:

 on issues unique to younger women facing breast cancer

 outreach and education to students on campus

Sharsheret Educational Resource Booklet Series

, culturally-relevant publications for  women and their families, and healthcare professionals

The organization also extends its community outreach with activities that engage local students. “Feb. 10 was Sharsheret Pink Day,” Silber said. “We were in nearly 100 middle schools, high schools, and some college campuses all across the country. … Sharsheret materials were sent to every school so students could bring them home for their families.”

Even with all of its many accomplishments and offerings, Sharsheret is not resting on its laurels moving into the future.

“Sharsheret just completed a five-year strategic plan in April 2015 that focuses on growth and expansion,” Silber said. “It goes hand-in-hand with the grant we received from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to amplify and scale up our programs. Sharsheret’s headquarters are in Northern New Jersey. We have a regional office in South Florida. We will open another regional office in Los Angeles later this summer. With this we will be able to offer later hours to meet the needs of the women who are living on the west coast.”

Beyond those ambitious plans, Sharsheret will continue to focus on what it does best: strengthening its “chain” of support and service.

“Everything is free, everything is confidential, everything is convenient,” Silber said. “Our goal is to ensure that no woman will have to face breast cancer or ovarian cancer alone.”

For further information, call toll-free at 866-474-2774 or go to 

Articles

Jewish Breast Cancer Support Group Helps Women, Families of All Backgrounds

Mention the term “testicular cancer” in mixed company and it may elicit some uncomfortable glances, crossed legs among the men, and perhaps even some uneasy laughter.

But testicular cancer (TC) is no joke. It is the most common form of cancer in men age 15 to 35. However, possibly due to the discomfort some people have about discussing “male parts,” it is a somewhat taboo topic. Young men are reluctant to talk about it, or examine themselves in this area, and those with TC may not discover it until it’s too late.

Mike Craycraft, RPh, has made TC prevention his life’s mission. A pharmacist and TC survivor, Craycraft is the founder of the Testicular Cancer Society (TCS), a nonprofit organization devoted to educating men about this illness.

“The society’s mission is to reduce the burden of testicular cancer by increasing education awareness and then providing services to (testicular cancer) fighters, survivors and caregivers,” Craycraft told 

. “And we hope the day comes when no young man is going to die from the disease, because it is so highly treatable at early stages.”

Craycraft acknowledged that TC can be uncomfortable subject matter for some, and spoke of his strategies to defuse that discomfort.

“Humor is a big part of it, without being too crass. But you’re trying to reach young men — it’s difficult,” he says. “We have a mobile app that just gives a couple of quick facts about testicular cancer; it shows how to do a self-exam and you get reminders to do it. And one of the ways we thought to drive guys to it is, we tell them to go to 

. They get a little giggle out of it, and that redirects to our website where we have the app.”

Beyond the organization’s successful social media efforts (its “TC is no joke” hashtag had 9.5 million impressions in 2015), TCS also achieves public outreach by presenting programs at public institutions such as high schools and colleges. But Craycraft also seeks unconventional means to spread the society’s message.

One such undertaking is a partnership with an upcoming feature film, “Funeral Day,” (

). Craycraft explained, “It’s about a guy who wakes on the morning of his friend’s funeral, feels a lump in the shower, and decides he has testicular cancer. Instead of going to a doctor, he decides he’s going to fix his life in one day. The story hit home because I felt a lump and waited seven months to go to the doctor,” Craycrafy says. “Our plan is to set up free movie nights at universities, and then the kids show up to see (it) and have to listen to us for five minutes before it starts.”

Other upcoming projects include a mobile app to help men with testicular cancer track their chemotherapy process, as well as a collective impact initiative in Ohio called “Talk About TC,” for which the goal is to end TC-related deaths in Ohio by 2020 through a three-pronged approach of addressing awareness, access to care and quality of care.

“The biggest thing that we’re looking forward to now is trying to see if we can use this pilot to prove that we can indeed end deaths from the disease and then have the template to be able to roll it out to other states,” Craycraft says.

But even with all of TCS’s achievements, Craycraft still faces the challenge of talking about a topic that makes some people squirm. He recounted how at a recent speaking engagement at a Breast Cancer Center, “I noticed, even walking through the halls, because (I was) there to talk about testicle cancer, I (was) treated differently than the women there to talk about breast cancer. And there are schools where I have someone with me every second and the women have full range. … Hopefully, overcoming that stigma one day will solve a lot of problems.”

But ultimately, for Craycraft, helping individuals with TC is its own reward. “We have people (who) come back to us years later and say, ‘Hey, I just passed my checkup.’ And that’s one of the greatest things to hear.”

Many men are apprehensive to talk about and get checked for testicular cancer, although those conversations can be life-saving. 

Overcoming the Stigma of Testicular Cancer

David Bowie, the British singer-songwriter whose decades-spanning career was characterized by ongoing artistic reinvention, died of cancer on Sunday, Jan. 10.

Reportedly, Bowie battled cancer privately for 18 months. His illness was never made public. At press time, the type of cancer had not been announced.

After a long period of career inactivity, Bowie had an extremely high profile in the weeks preceding his death. A 10-minute 

 of the title track from what would turn out to be his final album, "Blackstar," was released in November to great critical acclaim. It’s a dark vision in which a masked Bowie sings ominous lyrics including lines such as "Something happened on the day he died, spirit rose a metre then stepped aside, somebody else took his place, and bravely cried."

The "Blackstar" album was released on Jan. 8, his 69th birthday, and two days before his death. His final artistic statement was acclaimed for its musical innovation. Changing gears for the final time in a career that say many such changes, "Blackstar" was recorded with a jazz group, but also incorporated rock instruments and electronic music harkening back to Bowie’s early music while simultaneously staking out new ground.

Born David Robert Jones, Bowie adopted his stage name to avoid confusion with Davey Jones of The Monkees. Bowie’s eponymous first album, released in 1967, was folky and whimsical, and didn’t stir up much interest for the young artist. He had his first hit in 1969 with "Space Oddity." His career growth continued with the 1971 album "Hunky Dory," which featured the hit "Changes."

But it was the 1972 LP "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" that brought Bowie international fame. Adopting the persona of Ziggy Stardust, Bowie was a striking character with red hair and an androgynous look. This was the first of many characters Bowie would utilize, and discard, over the course of his musical career. The stark, sleekly dressed Thin White Duke was another notable persona Bowie adopted.

He embraced a variety of musical styles throughout ensuing decades. Albums such as "Young Americans" (1975) and "Station to Station" (1976) found him working in an R&B style. With collaborator Brian Eno, he embraced cold, synthesized tones. And he experienced the greatest commercial success of his career in 1983 with "Let's Dance," which spawned three top 10 hits and sold 7 million copies worldwide.

A trained mime, Bowie utilized his flair for characterization as an actor on screen and stage. Noted performances included the films "The Man who Fell to Earth" (1976) and "Labyrinth" (1986), as well as an acclaimed run on Broadway playing the title role in "The Elephant Man" in 1980 and 1981. Bowie is survived by his wife Iman, their daughter Alexandria (born in 2000), and his son from his first marriage, film director Duncan Jones (born Zowie Bowie in 1971).

A true innovator, David Bowie leaves behind a vast and distinguished body of creative work.

This article will be updated pending further information on Bowie’s condition.

Howard Whitman

Jewish Breast Cancer Support Group Helps Women, Families of All Backgrounds

Overcoming the Stigma of Testicular Cancer

Legendary Rocker David Bowie Dies of Cancer, 69

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