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Students advocate cancer awareness by forming new club

By Daily Bruin Staff

Jan. 26, 1997 9:00 p.m.

Monday, January 27, 1997

ACTIVISM:

Bruins for American Cancer Society stress disease prevention By
Nancy Encarnacion

Daily Bruin Contributor

The average discussion section holds between 20 to 30 students.
Chances are, one of these young students will someday be diagnosed
with cancer, a disease that afflicts one in 25 people each year. A
new club on campus, Bruins for American Cancer Society (BACS), is
working to change these odds.

The club was founded in Fall Quarter by Jenny Kim, a fifth-year
microbiology and molecular genetics student, as an outreach arm of
the American Cancer Society (ACS). BACS will mirror the American
Cancer Society’s national activities on a local scale.

Although the club has yet to have a formal meeting, volunteers
have already helped organize activities such as the National
Smoke-out, a three-day event which took place last November. This
event provided students with information on lung cancer and asked
that they give up smoking for a day, a challenge 200 UCLA students
accepted. Kim said that quitting for even one a day is a big
accomplishment, which can lead to quitting permanently.

"Hopefully, they could realize the benefit of not smoking and
realize that they can do it," Kim said.

BACS has several other programs in the works, such as
educational seminars on smoking cessation and nutrition and
exercise. Kim says the goal of these seminars is to inform students
of the preventative measures against cancer.

"Cancer is half genetic and half environmental; we’re trying to
work with the environmental half," Kim said.

And she should know. Kim has experienced first-hand that
prevention is much easier than dealing with the cancer itself. Her
family was affected by cancer last year when, within a period of
two months, both her mom and aunt were diagnosed with the
disease.

Kim said this experience made her aware of the importance of
cancer prevention, such as annual check-ups, which her mom never
had.

To find out more about the disease, Kim turned to the resources
UCLA had to offer. She sought the advice of her microbiology
professor, who helped her family by recommending some
specialists.

"I think of UCLA as a public school where everything is
available," Kim said, explaining that the university’s role need
not end in the classroom.

Kim hopes that BACS will make students aware of the vast
resources available at UCLA and give them a place to seek help for
themselves or family members affected by cancer.

"The university is a good place to reach out because families
rely on the student who’s in college," Kim said. Her family
depended on her to provide them with information from the
university that they might not otherwise have.

Through her research, Kim not only found a specialist for her
mother, but also developed an interest in cancer and cancer
prevention. She furthered her study of cancer by taking Field
Studies in Cancer Control, a class offered by the Office of Field
Studies, last fall. The course required her to do four hours of
field work per week to further her knowledge of cancer in a
different setting.

Maxine Weiner, who taught the course, said the number of
applicants for this first-time class surprised her: 240 students
applied to take the class, but only 40 were selected.

"I was thrilled with students’ interest in wanting to help other
people. The more educated the students are, the better the whole
community is," said Weiner, who is also the Field Studies
coordinator.

A high level of interest in the course has allowed it to
continue, and it will be offered again this spring. Weiner says she
is glad about this and finds it beneficial that students are
learning about the realities of cancer.

If this first-time partnership between a major university and
the American Cancer Society is successful, Senior Program Manager
Cindy Chang Salkin says she would like to expand the program into
other Los Angeles universities.

As part of its partnership with UCLA, ACS will provide a half
day of training for the student volunteers, so they can better
answer students’ questions. Educating its members will be an
important part of BACS’ goal so they can provide support for other
students.

"Individuals identify better with their peers," said Professor
Donald Morisky, faculty advisor for the club. He says an advantage
to having such a group on campus is that it allows club members to
address the problem of cancer before it becomes a more serious
issue.

Kim says she hopes that once interested students contact her and
the club gets formally organized, possibly around fourth week, they
will be able to help other students understand the necessity of
cancer prevention.

"We have to do something about it; you only live once, why would
you want to suffer later?" Kim said.

For more information on the meeting time and place of BACS,
e-mail [email protected] or [email protected].

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