Celebrating Cancer Survivors and Those Who Support Them

Steve Adubato goes on-location to Hackensack Meridian Health’s “Celebrating Life & Liberty” event to speak with those living with cancer and individuals giving support to patients in treatment and recovery.

Guests Include:

Robert Garrett, CEO, Hackensack Meridian Health
Lesley Blum, Cancer Patient
Dr. Andre Goy, Chairman & Executive Director, Lymphoma Division Chief, John Theurer Cancer Center
Jacqueline Brown-Ware, Cancer Survivor
Stacy Kreizman, Senior Manager, Patient & Community Outreach, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
Jonathan Guevorra, Cancer Patient
Stephanie Faith Kruse, Cancer Survivor
Marisa Valentinetti, Project Purple Ambassador
Richard Verde, Cancer Patient
Luther Engler, Cancer Survivor

11/19/19 #2252

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato. I recently had the opportunity to attend the annual Celebrating Life & Liberty event at MetLife Stadium, hosted by Hackensack Meridian Health. It was an inspiring and emotional day, as we celebrated patients dealing with cancer, survivors, and caregivers. The event gives the entire cancer community an opportunity to come together and celebrate their journey. I spoke to healthcare leaders, patients, family members, and survivors, who share their stories to give others hope. Let's check it out. Welcome folks to MetLife Stadium. This is the Celebrating Life & Liberty event here at MetLife, and we're going to be talking to all sorts of folks who are part of this event. Eleven years they've been doing this. There'll be about 6,000 people here in just a few minutes, believe it or not. There's a soundcheck going on with the band. And Bob Garrett, who is the CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health will not be singing with them. Neither will I. Really? I thought I was. No no! [laughter] They don't want us Bob. It's not my song anyway. Exactly. But here's the thing. Talk to us about this event and why it's so important. Well Steve, first of all, great to be with you again here at MetLife Stadium. Always. This is the 11th year of the cancer survivors symposium and the cancer survivors event. It's called Life & Liberty for good reason. It's about celebrating life. It's about being free of cancer. I go to a lot of events during the course of the year. But I have to tell you, this is the most special event that I go to. Because? Because it's inspirational. It really is. When you see patients, cancer survivors, with their families, with their friends, and then their caregivers really celebrating what they've been through, where they're going in the future, it's just unbelievably inspirational. And you know, if you don't get emotional at something like this, what do you get emotional at? And the great thing is, over the eleven years, we're seeing more and more cancer survivors here, which means more and more of them are surviving cancer, the treatments have gotten more sophisticated, we're seeing better outcomes, and to see these people celebrate as they're going to be in just about an hour from now, is going to be truly special. What's interesting, Bob, is beyond the clinical part...? Yes. The medicine, right? The human part of this. The families..."