Preston Edwards and his childhood friends – Bennie Priestley and Ronald Brazile – were featured on “Weekend Today” with Lester Holt. The interview featured a quick, wide ranging interview that allowed Edwards to discuss the book and offered advice to cancer survivors.
Click here to see the interview and reach an excerpt of the book that is included on the NBC website.
Lester Holt, co-anchor “Today Weekend Edition”, will interview three childhood friends who each battled cancer at the same time and wrote ‘You Have Cancer’ on Saturday, January 12.
The show, which airs between 7am – 9am EST, will feature a live interview with Preston Edwards Sr., Ronald P. Brazile and Benjamin “Benny” Priestley. Holt is expected to discuss their lives together growing up in New Orleans, and ask them about how they each survived cancer. He also will ask them to offer advice to those currently fighting cancer. (Go to ‘Survival Tips’)
The three childhood friends will recount how they inadvertently discovered that they each were battling cancer at the same time. Their drive to survive led them to writing, “You Have Cancer”, as an inspirational and educational book for individuals and families battling cancer.
Preston Edwards and his childhood friends are featured in a story in the Winter issue of Heal Magazine.
The article, “Friends for Life”, written by Megan Kinkade, chronicles the story of how Edwards, Ronald Bazile, Benny Priestley and Ellis Brossett met as kids, then supported each other throughout their battles with cancer.
Kinkade writes, “Looking back, none of the four friends could pinpoint what caused their cancers, but that didn’t stop them from guessing. There were many possible causes from their youth; they would puzzle over them often during their talks.”
(New Orleans, LA – November 27) Preston Edwards Sr. remembers those early days of chemotherapy. He didn’t know how he would make it.
But with the help of his childhood friends, who also were going through chemo, he is a survivor, and wants the millions of others suffering from cancer to make every day count.
“I know it’s not easy,” said Edwards, 64, publisher of the 36-year-old Black Collegian Magazine. “But you’ve got to have faith and you need your friends and family to lift you up every day. Once you embrace that support, you will know how important and precious every day is.”
For the past year, Edwards and several of his childhood friends have been on a mission to share their successful stories of surviving cancer and their desire to reverse the number of African-American males getting diagnosed with cancer.
About six years ago, he thought he had been sentenced to death after his doctor told him the three dreaded words: “You have cancer.” Within a matter of weeks, Edwards learned that three of his childhood friends were also battling cancer.
“We’ve got to get over the ‘taboo’ of cancer and we’ve got to fight it together,” Edwards said. “We’ve got to go to the doctor. We’ve got to eat better and exercise.”According to the American Cancer Society, African-American males have a higher rate of cancer than whites, particularly prostate and lung cancer.
In Edwards’ book, ‘You Have Cancer’, Dr. Harold P. Freeman, medical director of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention in New York, explains that there are 3,700 new cases of cancer diagnosed everyday and that most are preventable. Freeman points out that people, particularly African-American men, need to watch their diets, exercise and to stop smoking.
Edwards and three of his childhood friends are traveling the country telling every man over 40 to go to the doctor to get their annual check up. They are greatly encouraged by the widely publicized efforts of renowned cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong who urged Texas voters to support a $3 billion bond initiative for cancer research. The announcements of former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and ABC Good Morning America’s Robyn Roberts battles to overcome cancer are additional symbols of encouragement.
“There’s rarely a day that passes when I don’t talk to someone who doesn’t have a friend or loved one dealing with cancer,” said Edwards, a proud grandfather who travels to country to spend time with his family. “I’m a living testimony – like so many others – that you can overcome cancer and live a very fulfilling life.”
In their book ‘You Have Cancer’, Edwards, Ronald P. Bazile Sr., Ellis M. Brossett, Sr. and Benjamin M. Priestley – chronicle the emotional journey from the time they were first told they had cancer and through the arduous days of enduring chemotherapy and now the joy in knowing they had all avoided a ‘death sentence’.
Edwards was diagnosed with cancer of an ‘unknown primary’; Bazile with prostate cancer; and Priestley with lung cancer. In the midst of writing the book, Ellis M. Brossett Jr. died fighting Mantle Cell Lymphoma.
During a recent campaign stop in Iowa, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) listened carefully as Geri Punteney broke into tears as she told him about her mom who was suffering from a late state of cancer. NPR captured the moment as part of its on-going series of putting a voice to the millions of potential voters who sit in on presidential campaign pit stops. In the report, Obama leaves his podium, walks up to Punteney, grabs her hand and promises to make a difference. The event brought into focus the omnipresent concern about how the United States best provides health care for all segments of its population, and how to care for families and individuals who are battling cancer.
Preston Edwards Sr. is busier than ever. He’s stepping up his efforts to speak to small and large groups about how to cope with cancer, and how to enjoy life to the fullest. He realizes that he and his buddies have battled and survived cancer, but they will not rest easy anytime soon.
They really want to make sure black men get the message: Go to the doctor, eat correctly and exercise. Edwards and his friends – Ronald P. Bazile Sr., Ellis M. Brossett, Sr. and Benjamin M. Priestley – know that those three things will help save many lives. The medical experts have told them that if black men – and anybody for that matter – take these three steps, their chances of cancer will be greatly reduced.
So, stay tuned, Preston, Ronald or Ben may be in your town, celebrating life.
As host of ABC’s Good Morning America, Robin Roberts is using her platform to make sure breast cancer awareness is top of mind. Earlier this week, she, and her oncologist, Dr. Ruth Oratz, hosted a roundtable discussion with cancer survivors.
Roberts and Oratz led the ladies – Meka Flowers, 27, Doris Saunders, 54, Maimah Karmo, 34, Donna Lindsay, 47 - in a very sensitive and insightful discussion that is available on the ABCNews.com website.
The common thread in each of the women’s comments is that they all feared the worse when they heard the dreaded news, but that once they got a grip, they built on their faith, support of their family and now have a new sense of ‘being’.
Like Roberts, they are not shy about their disease and want to share their stories with others who are currently going through chemotherapy and encourage the other survivors to celebrate life.
Just last 
week, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow announced his resignation as the nation’s top spokesperson. In an emotional ceremony, President George Bush thanked Snow
reminder about the importance of ‘the fight’ against cancer and family.Snow told the media that he was prepared to fight to stay in the ‘land of the living’ – as Preston Edwards and his friends would say.Certainly, putting Rene Syler in the same sentence as Tony Snow seems odd. But the
former co-host of CBS’s ‘The Early Show’ and veteran Dallas news anchor, is traveling the country promoting preventive care check-ups for women and men. Her mother and father have battled breast cancer.
Earlier this year, she went on Oprah to talk about why she removed her breasts, knowing that she is a high-risk candidate. In her book, “Good Enough Mother”, Syler talks about her mom’s breast cancer. Now, she’s doing promos on the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show to promote his ‘Take A Loved One to the Doctor Day’, that’s coming up September 18th.
To sum it up, when highly visible individuals like Tony Snow and Rene Syler comfortably discuss cancer in as many public domains as possible, they are doing a huge service to anybody with cancer and most definitely, with cancer survivors.
Lance Armstrong, the legendary bicyclist and cancer survivor, is challenging the 2008 Presidential candidates to declare ‘War on Cancer’. He invited all the Democratic and Republican candidates to take a stand and commit to funds for research and assistance to the millions of Americans battling the disease at his “Live Strong Presidential Forum” in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
In a videotaped message on his website – LiveStrong.com, Armstrong states his case simply: “For me personally, it’s just to make sure that whatever candidates we have now and ultimately the two that want to become president, that they discuss the No. 1 killer in this country. And just like they would discuss war or terror or taxes, then why wouldn’t they want to discuss cancer – the No. 1 killer in this country. … Whoever wants to become Commander in Chief has to answer the cancer question.”
Armstrong corralled ‘Hardball’s’ Chris Matthews to co-host two separate debates. Only half of Democrat’s – Senators Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, Governor Bill Richardson and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. On the Republican’s side, only two worked out: Sen. Sam Brownback and Arkansas Gov. Mark Huckabee.
Sadly so, the cancer any president devoting time and resources to fight this disease would be monumental. We’d love for it to happen, but it’s not going to. No president is going to risk upsetting some segment of his constituency who might have heart disease, kidney problems, MS, MD …. well, you get the point. You’ve got to give props to Lance for pushing this issue into the national spotlight. His vision is to create an army of yellow – LiveStrong – bands that serve as a constant reminder to the candidates – wherever they may go – that fighting cancer is an on-going battle – not just a two-forum filled with convenient sound bites.
Lance’s crusade is significant for all cancer survivors. He speaks from personal experience. He knows what it feels like when you’re being told ‘you have cancer’. He knows that feeling of being given a ‘death sentence’. But, more than ever, Lance, like the rest of us cancer survivors, are enjoying each and every day of life — more than ever.
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