ThyCa Invites You To Help Raise Awareness for Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month

ThyCa Volunteers Urge Everyone To Ask for a Neck Check for Early Detection

Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that has increased in incidence over the past several years. It will be diagnosed in a new record total of 33,550 people in the United States in 2007.

This is one of many reasons why ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association, Inc. sponsors Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month. September will highlight the year-round activities of ThyCa volunteers to:

• increase thyroid cancer education;
• raise awareness of the importance of early detection, treatment, and lifelong monitoring; and
• inform the public about ThyCa’s free information, resources, and support. ThyCa also seeks to raise awareness of the need for more thyroid cancer research.

ThyCa encourages everyone to ask for a neck check the next time they visit their doctor. Signs to discuss with the physician include a lump or fullness in the neck, lymph node swelling, difficulty breathing or swallowing, or voice changes. A neck check can be done quickly. Most thyroid cancer is treatable if found early, but some types are aggressive and difficult to treat.

ThyCa’s web site has more than 600 pages of information about all types of thyroid cancer, diagnosis, treatment, research, clinical trials, questions to ask your doctor, local support groups, e-mail support groups, a calendar of coming events, the Rally for Research, and the 10th International Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Conference, to be held this year on October 19-21, 2007, near San Francisco, California.

Web site visitors can also download ThyCa's free publications, including the newly published 6th edition of the Low Iodine Cookbook, as well as fact sheets and online newsletters.

In addition, ThyCa's web site has a section titled Raise Awareness with downloadable flyers entitled, “Find It Early” and “Know the Signs”, a fact sheet titled "About Thyroid Cancer”, and additional publications.

Free wallet cards and free awareness brochures featuring actor and thyroid cancer survivor, Catherine Bell, co-star of the hit TV series J.A.G., are also available.

ThyCa invites everyone interested to help with thyroid cancer awareness efforts in their communities. Among the activities and events during September:

• In Pennsylvania, on Saturday, September 8, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and ThyCa are sponsoring the Pittsburgh Thyroid Cancer Seminar, with numerous physician speakers during the day. Details about this free event are at http://www.thyca.org/PittsburghSeminar09-2007.pdf.
• In Maryland, on Saturday, September 15, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Leonard Wartofsky, M.D., thyroid cancer specialist and past president of the American Thyroid Association and The Endocrine Society, will speak and answer questions at the monthly meeting of the ThyCa Washington, DC, Thyroid Cancer Support Group. Details are at http://www.thyca.org/sg/dc.htm.
• In Indiana, a volunteer is working with her surgeon on an awareness campaign using the literature and materials from ThyCa.
• In Michigan, a volunteer plans to place an article each week in September in the weekly employee newsletter at her workplace.
• In New Jersey, a corporate nurse will give a presentation and distribute thyroid cancer awareness brochures and wallet cards to the company’s more than 400 employees.
• Local support group meetings will bring thyroid cancer survivors and caregivers together in person in September, as well as every month, around the United States and in Costa Rica and Philippines.
• Survivors and caregivers around the world are wearing and giving awareness wristbands and pins and giving awareness brochures and flyers to their friends and relatives.

For information and free materials about thyroid cancer, ThyCa's free support services, and the conference, e-mail to thyca@thyca.org, call toll free 1-877-588-7904, fax to 1-630-604-6078, write to PO Box 1545, New York, NY 10159-1545, or visit www.thyca.org.