DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000292964.23186.88

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Issn Print: 0276-2234

Publication Date: 2004/10/25


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Talking to Advocate Extraordinaire Harry Belafonte

Eric T. Rosenthal

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Excerpt

When I was arranging interviews for the column about the COMPARE registry (OT 9/10/04), the public relations folks handling the prostate cancer project's so-called rollout at the National Medical Association meeting in San Diego wanted me to speak first with Harry Belafonte who, as a prostate cancer survivor, was attending the meeting to discuss his personal battle with the disease in an effort to raise awareness.
He launched into what would become an hour-and-a-half discussion that took us through a fascinating social history of 20th century America as seen through the eyes of a man who'd started life as an impoverished and disenfranchised child in Harlem, and who then participated in some of the seminal social and political events that helped shape this country during that time.
Mr. Belafonte's longtime role as a leading social, political, and civil rights activist offers a rich historical context for the evolution of today's cancer advocacy movement.
I asked if he considered himself a patient advocate or a man who had experienced prostate cancer (diagnosed 8 years ago when he was 69) and just wanted to share the experience with others.
“Both really,” he said, in a thoughtful and measured manner that characterized his conversation. I have looked at the peculiar phenomenon that so much information is being disseminated, and there is still such a low threshold of responsibility being expressed by many in taking care of health.
Eric Rosenthal founded the NCI-designated Cancer Centers Public Affairs Network; works with Vital Options International TeleSupport Cancer Network and The Group Room cancer radio show as senior correspondent and news features editor; has organized conferences about the media and medical/cancer communications issues; and is a member of the NCI Director's Consumer Liaison Group, a 15-member chartered federal advisory committee that advises and makes recommendations on issues relevant to people with cancer, their families, and the cancer advocacy community.
“This is particularly sensitive from my own perspective in terms of my experience in the black community,” he continued. Not just in the issue of prostate cancer, but in all other instances that plague us, and in some instances that plague us more than other groups, whether it's diabetes or hypertension or heart attacks.
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