Exhibit features portraits, stories of survivors from region, including two Russellville women

RUSSELLVILLE — Ashley George remembers the day she became one of the “Faces of Cancer.”

Her grandmother and mother had each been diagnosed with a type of thyroid cancer that seems to run in families. A doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville suggested that George and her four siblings be tested. It was May 2000, and George was 16 years old.

“I had the gene, and my youngest brother had it,” the Russellville woman said. “Both of us had surgery the same day.”

While her brother, who was 6, did not have cancer and was released from the hospital the next day, Ashley already had cancer. She stayed in the hospital for one week.

George is one of 10 in the Kentucky Cancer Program’s “Faces of Cancer” exhibit, which features portraits and stories of 10 southcentral Kentucky cancer survivors. The exhibit will be displayed at Logan Memorial Hospital through Thursday. “Faces of Cancer” has already been displayed in Bowling Green and Monroe County. It will travel to Butler, Edmonson and Hart counties in the spring.

Click here for more photos from the exhibit.

“We knew not everyone could travel to Bowling Green to see it,” Elizabeth Westbrook, Kentucky Cancer Program cancer control specialist, said Friday during a kick-off luncheon for the exhibit. “It’s so important that we wanted to go to each community where these people reside.”

Others featured are Brenna Brown of Russellville, James Cartwright of Morgantown, Louise Doyle of Park City, Dona Ebert of Munfordville, Jean Page of Tompkinsville and Anne Grubbs, Jean Gray, Lucy Mason and Mary Jo Smith, all of Bowling Green.

“Living with cancer is a journey. There are 14 million cancer survivors in the United States today,” Westbrook said. “Many are active. You wouldn’t even know they have cancer. All have unique stories to tell.”

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Harvey, Alyssa (2010, November). ‘Faces of Cancer’. Bowling Green Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/faces-of-cancer/article_c5e1f518-4539-5357-8906-6f18504a74c7.html