Parenting with Cancer Webinar Series: Understanding Hereditary Cancers and Your Family
Date: Tuesday, October 3
Time: 10am PST/12CST/1EST
Speaker: Dr. Sue Friedman, FORCE Founder and Executive Director
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Description: If you have hereditary cancer and are a parent, there may be a million questions swimming around in your head. How do I share this information with my kids and when? When should my kids get genetic counseling? Do other members of my family need to know? Join us to dig deep into all things hereditary cancer, kids, and parenting. This webinar will discuss cancers identified as having a hereditary component, genetic counseling and testing, national guidelines for testing, when it’s appropriate to test children, how to share genetic information with family members and why that is important... and more! While this presentation is aimed at parents navigating a hereditary cancer, it will also be appropriate for previvors with children, as well as previvors and survivors diagnosed before becoming parents. There will be plenty of time for questions!
Bio: Dr. Sue Friedman was practicing small animal medicine in south Florida in 1996 when she was diagnosed "out of the blue" at age 33 with breast cancer. At the time, she was unaware of familial risk factors for hereditary cancer. Reading an article about hereditary breast cancer after completing her treatment, Sue realized that she had several indications for a mutation. She pursued genetic counseling and, in 1997, tested positive for a BRCA2 mutation.
Shocked that her health care team didn't alert her to the possibility of being at high risk, and disappointed at having to make critical treatment decisions while unaware of her mutation, Sue acted so others could benefit from her misfortune. She founded FORCE in 1999 to fill the information void for individuals and families with hereditary cancer and to help them advocate for themselves. After five years as the organization's executive director (while maintaining her own busy practice), Sue left veterinary medicine to direct FORCE full-time. Since then, the organization has become an unequaled source of research, advocacy, support, and information regarding risk management, prevention, and awareness.
In 2004, Sue relocated her husband Dan, son Beau, and FORCE headquarters to Tampa to work more closely with researchers to improve medical options, care, and outcomes for people affected by hereditary cancer. She is a 20-year breast cancer survivor. Sue is co-author of the book Confronting Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer, which was published by Johns Hopkins Press, February 2012.