BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — In broadcasting, our look is a very important part of the job. In my 25-plus years as a broadcast journalist, my look has changed here and there, but I always try to be professional and appropriate. I’ve learned our clothing can communicate something to viewers that we may or may not be trying to communicate. That’s actually something I learned from my mom as teenager, and thankfully, it stuck. So really it comes as no surprise to me that, on occasion, different organizations will reach out to anchors and ask if you’ll wear a particular color on a particular day to raise awareness about a cause or health condition people face. We have more than a million viewers in our television market so it’s a great way to raise awareness. I almost always join in: red for women and heart disease, pink for breast cancer awareness, purple for Alzheimer’s or domestic violence awareness and prevention, teal for ovarian cancer awareness, and yellow for childhood cancer awareness and research. did-you-knowLast month, I was approached about wearing the color turquoise at some point during the week of May 9-13 to mark National Women’s Lung Health Week. I reflexively emailed back: “I will wear turquoise every day that week.” For me and my family, the “Turquoise Takeover” comes at a time when we are learning everything we can about lung cancer. We got our first lesson five months ago when my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 adenocarcinoma. What I have since learned from the American Cancer Society is that this type of lung cancer is more common in women than in men. It is also the most common type of lung cancer seen in non-smokers, although it mainly occurs in current and former smokers. I also learned from my mother’s medical team that she is lucky that her cancer was found so early, that normally patients are much sicker when they find this cancer. Our silver lining has been that my mother is in good physical shape. She has been able to tolerate chemotherapy very well, and the tumor is responding the way the doctors want. It’s contained and shrinking ever so slightly. We thank God for that response and pray it keeps moving in the right direction. I told my mother I would be wearing turquoise for a week to raise awareness about lung cancer in women and asked her if she was OK with me sharing some of her story in an article that would run during the Turquoise Takeover. Anyone who has met my mom knows she doesn’t meet any strangers so her response was in the affirmative. She said, “Maybe it will help someone.” That’s why in addition to agreeing to wear turquoise all week, I want to share this part of my mother’s journey. She’d had a cough, but it wasn’t until she coughed up blood that she went to see a doctor. A chest x-ray revealed the abnormality; a bronchoscopy and biopsy confirmed the cancer. We all wonder what if there had been an annual test to check her lungs for cancer along with all of those other annual exams that have kept her healthy enough to tolerate chemotherapy. What we know about lung cancer is the earlier it’s detected, the more options are available for treatment. The medical science is so advanced that genetic testing and targeted gene therapy for some lung cancers allow doctors to discuss cure for some of their patients and treatment as a chronic condition for others. But some won’t benefit from the advances science has made in treating lung cancers because their disease will be detected too late. That’s what the Turquoise Takeover is all about for me: communicating to women who have a chronic cough to ask their doctor for a chest X-ray. I hope you will tune in to watch me on the news doing what my mother taught me: to make sure my clothes communicate what I want them to say about me. This week, I’m saying to women that lung cancer can and does happen to us. I know because it happened to my mother, and that’s why I’m joining the American Lung Association this week for Lung Force and the Turquoise Takeover. There will be LungForce social Thursday evening at the Redmont Hotel. — Sherri Jackson is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and news anchor at WIAT CBS42 News. Story published originally in The Birmingham News.BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — In broadcasting, our look is a very important part of the job. In my 25-plus years as a broadcast journalist, my look has changed here and there, but I always try to be professional and appropriate. I’ve learned our clothing can communicate something to viewers that we may or may not be trying to communicate. That’s actually something I learned from my mom as teenager, and thankfully, it stuck.
So really it comes as no surprise to me that, on occasion, different organizations will reach out to anchors and ask if you’ll wear a particular color on a particular day to raise awareness about a cause or health condition people face. We have more than a million viewers in our television market so it’s a great way to raise awareness. I almost always join in: red for women and heart disease, pink for breast cancer awareness, purple for Alzheimer’s or domestic violence awareness and prevention, teal for ovarian cancer awareness, and yellow for childhood cancer awareness and research.
Last month, I was approached about wearing the color turquoise at some point during the week of May 9-13 to mark National Women’s Lung Health Week. I reflexively emailed back: “I will wear turquoise every day that week.” For me and my family, the “Turquoise Takeover” comes at a time when we are learning everything we can about lung cancer.
We got our first lesson five months ago when my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 adenocarcinoma. What I have since learned from the American Cancer Society is that this type of lung cancer is more common in women than in men. It is also the most common type of lung cancer seen in non-smokers, although it mainly occurs in current and former smokers. I also learned from my mother’s medical team that she is lucky that her cancer was found so early, that normally patients are much sicker when they find this cancer.
Our silver lining has been that my mother is in good physical shape. She has been able to tolerate chemotherapy very well, and the tumor is responding the way the doctors want. It’s contained and shrinking ever so slightly. We thank God for that response and pray it keeps moving in the right direction.
I told my mother I would be wearing turquoise for a week to raise awareness about lung cancer in women and asked her if she was OK with me sharing some of her story in an article that would run during the Turquoise Takeover. Anyone who has met my mom knows she doesn’t meet any strangers so her response was in the affirmative. She said, “Maybe it will help someone.”
That’s why in addition to agreeing to wear turquoise all week, I want to share this part of my mother’s journey. She’d had a cough, but it wasn’t until she coughed up blood that she went to see a doctor. A chest x-ray revealed the abnormality; a bronchoscopy and biopsy confirmed the cancer.
We all wonder what if there had been an annual test to check her lungs for cancer along with all of those other annual exams that have kept her healthy enough to tolerate chemotherapy. What we know about lung cancer is the earlier it’s detected, the more options are available for treatment. The medical science is so advanced that genetic testing and targeted gene therapy for some lung cancers allow doctors to discuss cure for some of their patients and treatment as a chronic condition for others.
But some won’t benefit from the advances science has made in treating lung cancers because their disease will be detected too late.
That’s what the Turquoise Takeover is all about for me: communicating to women who have a chronic cough to ask their doctor for a chest X-ray.
I hope you will tune in to watch me on the news doing what my mother taught me: to make sure my clothes communicate what I want them to say about me. This week, I’m saying to women that lung cancer can and does happen to us. I know because it happened to my mother, and that’s why I’m joining the American Lung Association this week for Lung Force and the Turquoise Takeover.
There will be LungForce social Thursday evening at the Redmont Hotel.
—
Sherri Jackson is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and news anchor at WIAT CBS42 News. Story published originally in The Birmingham News.