Outreach & Engagement News
With certificates presented to smiling faces and poses for photos, several recent celebrations had the usual sights and sounds of a graduation – but with a twist.
Drive-through gradations and socially distanced activities did not lessen the excitement of health advocates after eight weeks of training on chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Newly trained Community Health Advisors from the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center received their credentials for a new program to improve the health of their communities in Alabama and Mississippi.
After her mother died from lung cancer in 2011, Laronica Conway left her position as assistant commissioner for championships and sports administration with the Southeastern Conference for a new role in patient care, where she now serves as a research study coordinator at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB.
Leaders of the York Housing Authority are determined to bring essential health messages to their residents, even as they remain physically separated during the pandemic.
York, Alabama, housing employees participated in a virtual conversation this week with more than 100 other people about breast cancer detection, treatment and survivorship. “Sister Talk” was the first of two interactive virtual conversations about breast cancer presented by the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Loretta Herring’s soothing words of encouragement are among the last heard by thousands at the end of each night. Her commentary lasts fewer than two minutes but delivers enough solace to relieve the worries of the day.
A Community Health Advisor for the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, Herring is used to speaking at church gatherings and community events, large and small. Still, she never expected to become a welcome presence in cars and homes every evening with her “Kiss Motivational Moment.”
Cancer, including breast cancer, has been a constant presence in the life of Community Advisory Board member Nan Brown-Curtis and that of Community Health Advisor Darlene Robinson.
Her sister and niece both died of breast cancer. Her mother and two aunts were diagnosed with breast cancer as well. Her first husband died of lymphoma. Her current husband is a kidney cancer survivor and is currently fighting multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. Brown-Curtis herself is also a survivor of colorectal cancer.
