Cancer Survivor Day was celebrated as "Life is a Dance" at Glendale Adventist Medical Center on Friday with a healthy roasted-chicken lunch and a decadent fruit tart for dessert. Keynote speaker Chris Erskine regaled his audience with the home-spun humor found in his "Man in the House" Los Angeles Times column. More than 200 cancer survivors, their families, hospital oncologists and administrators present also got a dose of sobriety when Erskine described his father's battle with cancer.
Referring to the 9.8 million cancer survivors in the U.S., Glendale Adventist President/Chief Executive Morre Dean said, "We want to add to that number."
Dean introduced two doctors from the hospital who are, indeed, adding to the number of survivors — Radiation oncologist Sara Kim and Cancer Committee Chairman Boris Bagdasarian. They spoke of the strides Glendale Adventist has made in cancer prevention and treatment.
But it was the can-do spirit of the canDancers, all cancer survivors, that brought down the house. Dance instructor Arlene Vidor put her dancers through their paces to the delight of the crowd. Among those adding some twinkle to their Terpsichore were Glendale residents Julietta Narinian, Arsinee Geurdjelian, Sandy Saaed and Carmen Banawa from Los Angeles.
