Putting Health First in Fight Against Cancer

Three days a week, Jane Urman works out with weights and on a treadmill.

“Last night I had a big scoop of ice cream,” said Urman, 40, a national sales manager for a Chatsworth company and a Woodland Hills mother of two daughters. “But today I’m going to be very careful.”

Whole grains, vegetables and other healthy foods are a big part of her battle against cancer, an enemy that has killed four members of Urman’s family: a grandmother, an aunt, a mother-in-law, and an uncle, who died two weeks ago from prostate cancer.

“The hardest part is to watch a strong, vital person robbed of their dignity,” she said.

Urman, who is determined never to have the disease, says with relief, “Thank God I’m cancer free,” knocking on the wood of her chair.

Another aunt survived breast cancer, and Urman’s parents do not have cancer. And Urman has remained steadfastly optimistic about life. “Because life is wonderful and every time you wake up you experience something wonderful,” she said.

Because of her family history, it’s become very important to her to fight the disease.

“Each time, losing someone is hard,” Urman said. “But every time, it’s a wake-up call. Since you have been through it, you know you have to help someone else.”

She learned that from her parents, who are founding members of the John Wayne Cancer Institute Auxiliary. Four years ago, Urman joined other grown children of auxiliary members and relatives of Wayne’s to found Chapter II, a separate auxiliary that raises funds for a program to help patients learn to cope with the effects of cancer.

Of the younger group’s 400 members, about half live in the Valley and most have been affected by cancer. “It’s social,” said Urman, the fund-raising vice president of the auxiliary. “It’s fun. We became friends over the years. We’ve watched each other’s careers grow and watched our families grow.”

The group is holding a fund-raising Casino Night Friday in Santa Monica, one of several events such as movie screenings, fashion shows and music performances intended for young families and young professionals.

Their goal is to raise funds for the John Wayne Cancer Institute’s Lorraine Mann Psychosocial Program. Nancy Fawzy, a registered nurse who holds a doctorate in nursing, started the program nearly five years ago to help educate patients about their disease, find needed resources and learn coping techniques.

“It takes away the sense of isolation cancer patients have,” Fawzy said of the program, through which she counsels 50 to 75 patients a week dealing with problems including depression, fears of disfigurement, the long illness and the fear of death itself.

“A lot of time, extra information is all they need,” said Fawzy, who works with patients individually and in group sessions, bringing them up to date, for instance, on new advances in technology that have greatly reduced the side-effects from cancer treatment. To offer the program to more patients, more funding is needed, Fawzy said.

The Casino Night event starts at 7 p.m. Friday at the Miramar Sheraton Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica. A $60 donation covers admission and $100 of gambling scrip. For more information, call Carla Joseph, special events coordinator at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at (310) 582-7137.

Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please send suggestions on prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to valley@latimes.com