WGVU Family Health Matters Program: Grab Hold of the Reins

Be sure to tune in to WGVU on Sunday, October 28th from 2 – 3 pm for a powerful documentary concerning breast and ovarian cancer.  Tim Fitzgerald, MD, surgical director of The Lacks Cancer Center at Saint Mary’s, and Deb Bailey, breast cancer survivor and patient at Lacks, will be featured guest panelists for the live question and answer portion of the program.

Grab Hold of the Reins won a 2003 Gracie Allen Award. This moving PBS documentary focuses on the lives of three women, all of whom have battled breast or ovarian cancer. The program touches on the effect that cancer has on a couple's sexuality and looks at how the disease impacts the entire family. We meet Kristine Falco a woman who, despite losing both breasts to cancer, maintains a positive approach to life. As a therapist she works with other women who have survived cancer and she uses horses in her therapy; Cindy Melancon is a mother who has stage 3 ovarian cancer and her daughter Angel is angry about her mom’s illness; Zora Brown is an advocate for African-American women with cancer. She has lost several family members to cancer and understands the generational impact this disease can have on the women in a family. The husbands of all three women share their fears of physical intimacy and loss after their wives were diagnosed with cancer.

Grab Hold of the Reins also features Gloria Steinem, Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker. This award-winning program touches the heart and provides important information that will help save lives.