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Sammy Barnes is a fighter —
and not just for himself.
In November 2011 he was
diagnosed with a type of
blood cancer called multiple
myeloma, just six months
after losing his ex-wife — who
was also the mother of his
three children — to cancer.
He decided to fight back
against the disease, enlisting
the help of his kids to create
Multiple Myeloma Fighters, an
organization dedicated to
raising awareness and
helping support the search for
a cure.
“I’d like people to know that
there’s someone out there
Fighting Back Against Cancer Recognizing National Minority Cancer Awareness Week, April 5th-11th
THE MINORITY PATIENT ACTION TEAM
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THE OCHDR HAD A GREAT YEAR!
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OCHDR NEWS 4
MORE NEWS! 5
Inside this issue: Page#
Community Connections | April 2015 | Volume No 5, Issue 4
fighting for them,” Barnes
said. “I want to take my
group to each community in
Buffalo and spread the word
about multiple myeloma.”
As a member of the Roswell
Park Cancer Institute (RPCI)
Minority Patient Action
Team, whose members con-
sists of predominantly Afri-
can-American and Hispanic/
Latino patients at RPCI, he
offers advice, feedback, and
insight based on his own ex-
periences to help enhance
programs and services for
his fellow patients.
Barnes is currently dealing
with the side effects of chem-
otherapy, including dizzy
spells that make it difficult to
be active and travel. “It’s
hard to attend events in the
condition I’m in,” he said. “I
have my good days and my
bad days, and on my good
days I try to get around and
do whatever I can.”
Research underway at RPCI
aims to extend and improve
the lives of patients like
Barnes. Kelvin Lee, MD,
Chair of the Department of
Immunology and Co-
Leader of the Tumor Im-
munology and Immuno-
therapy Program, focuses
his work on the immunolo-
gy and biology of multiple
myeloma. The ultimate
goal: to develop vaccines
that can harness the pa-
tient’s own immune system
to destroy cancer cells.
For information about risk
factors for cancer and
RPCI’s early-detection
programs for people at
high risk, call 1-877-ASK-
RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or
visit www.roswellpark.org.
Bringing Together Patients to Gain Advice: Roswell Park’s Minority Patient Action Team
Page 2
Community Connections
Twenty-eight years ago, the U.S.
House of Representatives voted to
recognize the third week of April as
National Minority Cancer Aware-
ness Week. The goal: to draw
attention to “an unfortunate, but
extremely important fact about
cancer. While cancer affects men
and women of every age, race, eth-
nic background, and economic
class, the disease has a dispropor-
tionately severe impact on minori-
ties and the economically disadvan-
taged.”
National Minority Cancer Aware-
ness Week promotes increased
awareness of prevention and treat-
ment among groups who are at
greater risk of developing cancer.
It gives social workers, physicians,
nurses, health care professionals,
and researchers an opportunity to
focus on populations with a higher-
than-average risk of cancer and
develop creative ways to tackle
cancer-related problems specific to
those communities.
That’s the idea behind the Minority
Patient Action Team (PAT) initiative
introduced by the Roswell Park
Cancer Institute (RPCI) Office of
Cancer Health Disparities
Research (OCHDR). PAT brings
together 12 RPCI minority patients
who give advice about the use of
cancer-related videos, provide in-
sight into their experiences as
minority cancer patients, and assist
in enhancing and implementing the
21st Century leadership program
for RPCI employees, which high-
lights important cultural issues. The
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
funds the program.
It’s hoped that when the PAT meet-
ings conclude, the contributions of
its members will be the basis for a
program that could be adopted at
RPCI. Only PAT members will be
involved in developing the idea for
the project, which must enhance
care for minority (and eventually all)
RPCI patients.
“This is a lively, engaging, and
dedicated group of volunteers who
are motivated to improve the pa-
tient experience at Roswell Park,”
said Nikia Clark, OCHDR Health
Education Specialist and one of the
facilitators of the Minority Patient
Action Team.
For more information about PAT,
contact Nikia Clark at
716-845-4888 or
Visit www.roswellpark.org
PAT members include
(from top to bottom)
Thomasina Holmes,
Sammy Barnes, and
Melvin Marshall
The OCHDR sponsored over 300
community outreach events through-
out the Western New York-region in
2014. Over 4,000 people were
reached with cancer-specific
awareness programming or direct
outreach.
“I credit this success to our dedicat-
ed team and our many volunteers
who work tirelessly in providing
much needed services to under-
served populations,” said
Dr. Deborah Erwin, Director of the
OCHDR.
For more information about health
disparities, or to schedule events for
your organization, contact
Terry Alford at (716) 845-4557, or go
to www.roswellpark.edu/prevention/
cancer-health-disparities.
Page 3
Volume 5, Issue 4
The OCHDR had a Great 2014! Recognizing National Minority Cancer Awareness Week, April 5th-11th
The OCHDR Team
Community Connections
Page 4
OCHDR News!
OCHDR Staff in NYC for Patient Navigation
Training
In February, OCHDR staff members of Esperanza y Vida and the Buffalo/Niagara Witness Project traveled to New York City to participate in the two-day Harold Freeman Patient Navigation Institute Training program. “Participating in this training program is important because the program provides strategies to eliminate barriers that prevent pertinent cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment, and supportive care for under-served women most in need of these services,” said Jomary Colon, Project Coordinator of Esperanza y Vida, the OCHDR’s breast cancer awareness and treatment support program that targets local Latina women.
The concept of patient navigation
was founded and pioneered by Harold P. Freeman in 1990 .
According to Freeman, a critical window of opportunity to apply patient navigation is between the point of an abnormal finding to the point of resolution of the finding by diagnosis and treatment.
Currently the patient navigation model has been expanded to include the timely movement of an individual across the entire health care continuum from prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and supportive, to end-of-life care.
Patient navigation has shown efficacy as a strategy to reduce cancer mortality and is currently being applied to reduce mortality in other chronic diseases.
For more information about Patient Navigation services offered at Roswell Park, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724), or go to www.roswellpark.org.
Pictured left to right:
Jomary Colon, Isnory Colon
(Esperanza y Vida),
Harold Freeman, and
Cassandre Dauphin (Buffalo/
Niagara Witness Project)
OCHDR Welcomes New
Member to its Team
In November 2015, the OCHDR
welcomed a new edition to its
team, Bertha Brinson, as its new
Community Health Worker work-
ing out of Roswell Park’s satellite
office at the Hamilton B. Mizer
Building, which is located at the
Niagara Falls Memorial Medical
Center. At 510 10th St. in Niagara
Falls, NY. Currently, Bertha is a
student at NCCC majoring in
Human Services and expects to
graduate in December. She is
married to Bishop Joseph Brinson,
Jr. and is the First Lady of the
Covenant of Grace Fellowship
International Church at 1509 Main
Street in Niagara Falls. “As a
pastor’s wife of ten years now,
community outreach coupled with
promoting health education has
always been and still remains a
real passion of mine,” Bertha
says.
Bertha Brinson
Volume 5, Issue 4
Page 5
More OCHDR News! Recognizing National Minority Cancer Awareness Week, April 5th-11th
Cavalcade of Cars
In February, members of the
MANUP Prostate Cancer
Awareness Advocacy group,
along with organizers of the
2015 5th Annual “Cruisin’ for a
Cure Buffalo” Car Show,
participated in the 22nd
Annual “Cavalcade of Cars” at
the Hamburg Fairgrounds in
Hamburg, NY. “The purpose of
our volunteers participating in
the Cavalcade event is to
launch our promotional efforts
to inform car enthusiasts that
attend events such as these
about our own car show and
prostate cancer screening
event in September,” said
Richard Satterwhite, MANUP
President.
“While at the three-day event,
our volunteers also dissemi-
nated important information
about prostate cancer and the
benefits of talking to one’s
doctor about early screening
for the disease if one displays
high risk factors.”
This year’s “Cruisin’ for a Cure
Buffalo” Car Show will be held
at Roswell Park on Saturday,
September 26, 2015, from
9 am until 4 pm, rain or shine
(shelter will be available in
case of inclimate weather).
Prostate cancer education
and screenings will begin at
11 am until 2 pm. To pre-
register for screenings, call
1-877-ASK-RPCI
(1-877-275-7724), or go to
www.roswellpark.org. Find us
on Facebook too; go to:
Cruisin’ for a Cure Buffalo
From left to right:
Jim Dorsey and Richard Davis
working the MANUP booth at the
Cavalcade of Cars
Roswell Park
Introduces New
Program to Help
Smokers Quit
Roswell Park is offering a
FREE five-week tobacco
cessation course to the com-
munity. Classes will be held
on Mondays, 12 noon until
1:30 pm in the Research
Studies Center Prevention
Center located at the corner
of Elm and Carlton Streets.
A new series of classes will
begin every five weeks. At-
tendees will receive effective
quit strategies, a nicotine
assessment, group support,
stress management, relapse
prevention, medication refer-
rals, coupons for nicotine
replacement therapy, and
much, much more.
For questions or to register, contact
Stephanie Segal at (716) 845-8667, or at
R O S W E L L P A R K C A N C E R I N S T I T U T E
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
The Carlton House, Room 308-A
Elm & Carlton Streets
Buffalo, New York 14263
Phone: 716-845-4557
Fax: 716-845-8487
E-mail: [email protected]
Want to catch up on past editions of the
Community Connections newsletter? Just go to:
www.roswellpark.edu/prevention/cancer-health-disparities
