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Kimmy Fasani, Chris Benchetler host cancer awareness event

Cancer isn’t easy to talk about. Whether you’ve survived it personally, gone through the battle with a loved one, or know someone who knows someone with cancer of any kind, it’s a tough road to travel. Sometimes it’s an even tougher disease to discuss because of the heartache and uncertainty attached to it.

But Mammoth local and professional snowboarder Kimmy Fasani and her husband, pro skier Chris Benchetler, are looking to create a community where people can feel comfortable sharing their stories about cancer while enjoying the positive vibe of an active lifestyle, and they’re starting with an event next weekend.

Fasani, known in the industry as the first woman rider to complete a double back flip both in the backcountry and in the park, is an ambassador for B4BC, or Boarding for Breast Cancer. B4BC is a non-profit foundation dedicated to providing education, prevention and support programs for young people and the action sports community at large. B4BC promotes early detection and a healthy, active lifestyle as the best means of breast cancer prevention.

For Fasani and Benchetler, the desire to help is personal. While not having been touched by breast cancer, both athletes lost their fathers to lung cancer, an experience that brought them together at the beginning of their relationship.

“Cancer is cancer,” Fasani told The Sheet this week of the reasons behind her support of B4BC. “We all have a six degrees of separation connection to it.”

Signing on as a rider for B4BC gave Fasani a platform to share her story.

“It allows me to speak my voice,” she said. “I’ve been aligning myself with companies that show who I am. You only have a short time to be a role model in this sport. It’s not about the money, it’s about awareness and making an impact.”

Husband Chris is just as supportive of the endeavor, but seeing as how B4BC is a non-profit for breast cancer awareness, Fasani, as a woman, was the better choice for ambassador. The couple does, however, hope to someday start their own foundation that raises money for kids whose parents are battling cancer and might not be able to afford to send them out on the hill to ski or ride anymore.

For Fasani, raising cancer awareness has become even more important in the last few years. Her mother, Judy Fasani, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Follicular Lymphoma, a cancer of the blood that is currently deemed incurable, just months before Kimmy’s marriage to Chris in 2011.

Still living with and battling the disease today, Judy will be in attendance next weekend as Kimmy and Chris host the last leg of the Shred the Love Tour, B4BC’s premier winter event. This fundraiser not only benefits B4BC’s Survivorship Fund, but proceeds from next weekend’s event will also go to Mammoth Hospital’s cancer outreach programs.

The weekend kicks off with “It’s Personal,” an intimate dinner and fundraising benefit with Kimmy and Chris held Friday evening, May 3.

Dinner is from 6-8 p.m. at the Underground Lounge with a maximum seating of 45 people. Tickets are $100 each. It will be an intimate evening where stories will be shared, including that of Mammoth’s own Danielle Bauman (formally Eastman) who has been battling breast cancer.

Following dinner the event opens to the public from 8-10 p.m. for a silent auction.

On Saturday, May 4, it’s time to get out and get active. Beginning at 9 a.m. head to the Village at Mammoth for an hour-long yoga session ($10 donation requested). Then head up to Mammoth Mountain for a Lap-a-Thon and/or some runs on the public racecourse, which will be set up especially for the event.

“The Lap-a-Thon begins at 11 a.m. and will lap Chair 1 for two hours,” Fasani explained. Similar to a jog-a-thon, the Lap-a-Thon is based on pledges for how many laps a participant can make in the two-hour time period. A $50 minimum is required.

The racecourse will be open from 10 a.m. to noon and a $10 donation is requested. Prizes for the most laps and the top fundraiser at the Lap-a-Thon will be awarded, as well as a prize for the fastest time on the racecourse. The awards as well as a raffle will be presented from 1-2 p.m. on the back patio of the team headquarters building at Main Lodge, the main meeting area for the event.

Through all of her experiences with cancer, snowboarding has kept Fasani grounded and given her a release for some of her pain. She understands first hand the benefits of staying healthy and active during hard times, which is why next weekend’s event is near to her heart.

“Snowboarding was my outlet when my dad died,” Fasani expressed. “It’s important to find happiness in times of struggle.”

To learn more about next weekend’s event or to purchase tickets for Friday night’s dinner, visit www.stayclassy.org/b4bckimmyfasani.

Advanced registration for the Lap-a-Thon is required. Visit www.stayclassy.org/ShredtheLove to sign up by starting to fundraise or donate.

Lift tickets are required for on-hill activities, but will be offered at discounted prices for those participating in the event. Adults $59, Teen $44, and Child $21.

(Photo: Blotto)

Mammoth local, Brian Jones, better known as the artist “Flyin’ Brian” was diagnosed this week with multiple myeloma, or cancer of the blood. His wife, Cleland, has been keeping people updated via Facebook and Caring Bridge and stated that it was caught early so Brian’s outlook is really good. Read below for portions of Cleland’s recent Caring Bridge updates, and stay up-to-date on Brian’s progress at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/flyinbrian.

May 29: “We have some answers! Turns out that Brian has multiple myeloma, BUT it was caught so early that Brian’s outlook is really good. He has a 10% malignancy, so the first hurdle is obliterating those unwanted cells. Brian has gone through his first chemo, and is feeling fine, and his red and white blood cells are just dandy. The super cool news is that Brian’s neuropathy is paraneoplastic to the myeloma, so the treatment could cease the nerve damage and there is the possibility that his nerves will even get a chance to heal! Please keep those messages of prayers and good vibes coming…Brian is digging them and we sure can feel the love!!

May 31: “Brian is now on his way home from his first series of chemo. He is swollen and nauseated, but glad to be heading to Mammoth. I am so excited to report that he is only going to have to go down south once a month! The rest of the time he only has to get blood work done locally once a week. I figure your prayers and good wishes have gone a long way already!! Thank you everyone for following our journey. So far things just keep getting better and better. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll see Brian skiing again!!”

Rebecca Garrett’s vigilance ensures she will outlive her mother

Rebecca Garrett doesn’t follow the National Football League. Ask her and she’ll probably tell you she can’t tell one team from another. But, as fate would have it, the two do have something in common. This year, the National Football League rolled out its annual pink-trimmed player and fan gear to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this October. The NFL’s slogan this year: “A Crucial Catch.”

Garrett is someone who knows all about crucial catches, and her awareness of breast cancer dates back long before this October. Garrett, it turns out, had a run-in with the disease once before several years ago. The disease also claimed the life of her 45-year-old mom when Rebecca was a young girl.

And this year, breast cancer came back at Rebecca for a second go.

Friday, Jan. 7 … Garrett, who remembered she missed her scheduled mammogram in December, performed her own self-examination … and found a lump. Just three days later, she was in the hospital to see Mammoth Hospital Director of Imaging Dr. Yuri Parisky. “That week I had a biopsy on Tuesday and was diagnosed on Wednesday,” Garrett recalled. “I felt out of control. I needed control, an action plan.” Garrett decided to get organized. She read everything from “Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book” to anything she could find on the Internet.

She also researched and made appointments with 8 of the best doctors in the field. “They were in Los Angeles, and I liked all of them, so I picked one in closest proximity to my dad, who had to watch his wife, my mom, die from it.”

On Feb. 16, she went under the knife for a mastectomy, and soon after began a series of chemotherapy infusions. “I was miserable,” she related. “The chemo, losing a piece of your body, it’s tough. There were side effects, but I was lucky in that the early detection and type of cell meant I didn’t need radiation. That and I acted quickly.”

That, she thinks, had a lot to do with her ability to fight back. “My goal is to live longer than my mom. Every year, it’s plus one, then plus two … soon it’ll be plus 10.” By early June, she was deemed free of the disease, though she’ll be getting periodic checks to make sure it stays gone. “We’re getting better at diagnosis and treatment, surgery is getting more specific, reconstruction techniques are so much improved, drugs are more targeted. There’s a lot to be hopeful about.”

Parisky’s POV

Dr. Yuri Parisky also had a life-changing experience with breast cancer when he was in medical school 25 years ago. “I was profoundly affected by a mom, who was pregnant with her second child and found a mass, which later receded,” he explained. “During her third pregnancy, however, it came back, and this time it progressed. We did radical mastectomy surgery, we took out her ovaries, her adrenal gland … she fought it until the day she died.”

Parisky became fascinated by what he called the “spectrum” of the disease. “It’s unlike any other type of cancer,” he pointed out. “Breast cancer mimics the processes of other diseases, it goes where other cancers don’t and it can even go sort of dormant for years before resurfacing. With most cancers, we either cure you or there’s a marked progression. With this one, when we see a mass on the ureter [tubes that propel urine from the kidneys to the bladder], if it’s in a woman, there’s a damn good chance it’s breast cancer.”

He could have gone into oncology, but opted for radiology, which he said is more on the front lines of diagnosis. He was in the trenches during the massive changes that took place during the ‘80s and ’90s. “We perfected new surgical techniques. We no longer needed to take out the ovaries. We also got drugs we never had before, and of course mammography came into its own.”

Parisky said he anticipates seeing 3-5 cases annually in Mammoth, based upon an average local population of 1,000 women age 40-plus. He’s also been working on trying to keep local patients closer to their community, which he added has significant economic and mental benefits. CAT scans and chemotherapy, for example, are now available at Mammoth Hospital.

Breast cancer is elusive and contrarian, and influenced by so many factors, it’s little wonder the medical community, still doesn’t know exactly why it occurs. “We’ll find that through genetics,” Parisky thinks. “Genetic profiling, once it takes hold, will let us look at a cell and assay it, determine risk percentages, and even predict whether you’ll need chemo and if so what kind.”

That, he said, could help women address what he thinks is one of the hardest aspects of preventing the disease: “lifestyle” shifts. Diet and weight, for instance, are factors, but so is waiting to have kids, or not having them at all. “Breast cancer tends to be a more ‘upscale’ disease,” he observed. Indeed, its demographics skew more toward white, college-educated professional women, who tend to put off having families. “When you’re in your 20s, you think you’re bulletproof. By your 30s, you’re focusing on career goals and in your 40s, you’re in cruise mode; so things you should be doing to mitigate the disease don’t tend to register.”

Fight the good fight

Being cognizant of the disease and its peculiarities is something not lost on Garrett, who espouses the benefits of early detection and being as aggressive — if not more so — than the cancer.

“Find it early, and stop it early,” she urges. “Having no insurance isn’t a reason not to. Funds are available. There are free mammograms and support money for treatment. Look into the various organizations: American Cancer Society, Eastern Sierra Breast Cancer Alliance, Mammoth Hospital, any and all of them. Fight for your life … do your research.”

And, she adds, don’t let your life languish. “Eat well, exercise. Women are almost ashamed. They think, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’ That’s so counterproductive. Get in front of it, demystify it … get vocal about it!”

Asking for help from friends and family, she suggests, lets them be involved and can also beat back feelings of isolation. “I was so lonely, but having them around helped so much. They helped with dinner, getting the mail, walking the dog … I got like 30 hand-knitted hats, too!”

Garrett said the experience also helped forge some great friendships. “I know who I’d want to have with me skiing the backcountry,” she noted. One of her closest allies through the ordeal: her brother, Jason, who made the trip up from L.A. numerous times, and was with her at practically every step along the way. “He was an absolute rock star!”

Since then, she’s returned to work, visited family and friends in Europe and delights in simply taking her dog, Jade, on long walks through the Eastern Sierra’s network of trails. “And I love that my hair’s growing back,” she quipped.

In the end, Garrett observed that it comes down to attitude. “Defeat is not an option. I went on Facebook and said, ‘I’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, and I’m going to kick this thing’s ass!”

Swing a club against cancer

Get your entry in and play a round of golf for a good cause during Mammoth Hospital’s 8th Annual Cancer Outreach Golf Tourney on Friday, June 24, at Sierra Star Golf Course. Co-sponsored by Carson Tahoe Regional Healthcare and Healthcare Trust of Mammoth Lakes, the event is being held in honor of local cancer survivor Brian Venneman.

More info: contact Bubby Greene, 760.924.4128 or www.mammothhospital.com.

Breast cancer walk/run event

Walk or run, team or individuals, you can be part of Eastern Sierra Breast Cancer Alliance’s “Night of Lights” next Saturday, June 25, from 6-9 p.m. at the Bishop Union High School track.

Participants walk or run to raise cancer awareness and funds for local Inyo and Mono residents dealing with ALL types of cancer. Food and music are all part of the event, so get some exercise and enjoy a lovely summer evening, all the while helping a great cause.

Registration packets available at Northern Inyo Hospital, the ESBCA office and the Inyo County Library. Info/questions: 760.872.3811 or esbca.org.

Mono Basin Historical Society

The Old Schoolhouse Museum and Upside Down House in Lee Viining are open for the 2011 summer season. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays. Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. The Museum is located in Hess Park, corner of First Street and Mattly Avenue in Lee Vining, just off U.S. 395. A $2 donation per adult is requested. More info: call 760.647.6461.

Park underground at the Village

The Village Neighborhood Company has opened the underground parking garage to the public from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily (only closing at night to deter bear visits).

The underground lot and the outdoor parking lot across the street allow visitors easier access to The Village’s 13 dining and 14 shopping options.

Taste of the Bounty event

Sierra Bounty Produce Collective invites you to the first-annual “Taste of the Bounty” on Monday, June 20, from 4:30-8 p.m. at Stellar Brew off Main Street in Mammoth. Celebrate the summer season and the delicious harvest of food from the Eastern Sierra in this evening of local foods, music and the opportunity to meet local farmers.

Enjoy tasty foods prepared by Anything Goes Catering and Stellar Brew, beverages, and music by Sweetwater String Band.

Local growers include Simis Ranch, Mono Lake Produce, Banner Springs Ranch, Seismic Gardens, Goat Hollow Farms, Dennis Oakeshott, Apple Hill Ranch and Pumpkin Patch.

More info: visit www.sierrabounty.org or email sierrabountysara@yahoo.com.

Grumpy’s Hot Dog Contest

Fancy yourself the next Joey Chestnut or Takeru Kobayashi? Well, then it’s time to start stretching out your stomach … Grumpy’s 4th Annual Hot Dog Eating and Pie Eating Contest is on for the July 4 holiday! Sign up at Grumpy’s or contact Scott at 760.934.8587.

Father’s Day picnic and concert

Dads are invited to a special Father’s Day Picnic & Concert @ the Mammoth Lakes Library, this Saturday, June 18, from 4:30 – 6 p.m. Enjoy hot dogs, chips, root beer floats, as well as games and chalk art drawing, prizes & raffles! And be sure to stick around for great live music from folk singer and storyteller Adam Miller starts at 6 p.m. Info: 760.934.4777.

Tupperware and Avon Party
Saturday, Oct. 16, at 3 p.m. at the June Lake Community Center the June Lake Loop Women’s Club is hosting two parties on one day – Tupperware and Avon! This is a fundraiser for the Women’s Club. Can’t come and still want to shop? Join the online ordering at:  www.MyTupperware.com/JamieKitchens and www.YourAvon.com/SharonOlson

Eastern Sierra Breast Cancer Alliance
10th Annual 5KWalk/10K Fun run on Saturday, Oct. 30 at Bishop City Park beginning at 9 a.m. Pre-Register on or by Oct. 27 for a donation of $ 30. Pre-Registered participants are guaranteed a T-shirt. Registration forms available online at www.esbca.org or at Northern Inyo Hospital’s front lobby. This is a benefit event to help Inyo/Mono county residents dealing with any type of cancer. Call 760.872.3811 for information. Please leave a message and
we will return your call ASAP.

Dr. Sansom’s new device can detect oral cancer in its early stages. (Photo: Vane)

By Katie Vane

There’s a new technology at the office of Mammoth dentist Dr. Byron Sansom that could very well be a life saver. It’s called the Sapphire Plus Lesion Detection Oral Cancer Screening System, and it’s changing the way dentists such as Dr. Sansom screen patients for early signs of oral cancer.

Every year, 30,000 Americans die of oral cancer. That’s equal to the number that die of prostate cancer, and three times the number of Americans that die of cervical cancer. Yet until recently, there has been little awareness of the relative incidence of oral cancer. And until recently, no early screening system comparable to those used to detect prostate and cervical cancers has existed for oral cancer.

Traditionally, dentists used white light examinations to check for surface signs of cancer on the lips and inside the mouth. But by the time oral cancer presents surface signs it’s usually in its late stages, and has already spread to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes. The five-year survival rate for oral cancer detected in this late stage is barely 20 percent.

Now, with the help of the Sapphire Plus Lesion Detection System, dentists have a chance at catching oral cancer in the early stages, raising the patient survival rate to more than 80 percent.

The Sapphire Plus Lesion Detection System is the only device cleared by the FDA for its ability to help detect lesions that may not be visible under traditional white light exams, including precancerous and cancerous growths, and its ability to help surgeons ensure that all diseased tissue is successfully removed when excising cancerous lesions. The Sapphire uses harmless blue light to fluoresce oral tissue, showing details below the basement membrane, deep in the connective tissue. Any change in the cellular structure of the tissue due to inflammation or pre-cancer interferes with the light, shows up as a dark spot in the Sapphire scope.

Dr. Sansom has seen firsthand the consequences of late detection of oral cancer before the existence of technology like the Sapphire. A practicing dentist for 31 years, he’s found four cases of oral cancer using traditional white light. Three of those patients later died. “The key,” Dr. Sansom says, “is early detection.” Now that the technology exists,” he adds, “I’d feel terrible if someone died because I didn’t see something.” So he’s started using the Sapphire after every regular check-up, at no extra cost to the patient.

And it’s not just smokers and drinkers at risk these days. Many recent victims of oral cancer are contracting the disease not due to tobacco and/or alcohol use, but due to HPV (Human Papillomavirus). Over recent years there’s been a 5 percent rise per year in HPV-related oral and throat cancer.  Many of these patients are young non-smokers. “Young people don’t realize,” Dr. Sansom says; “they think cancer is for old people.”

Fortunately, dentists like Dr. Sansom are ready and willing to start regularly screening patients both young and old for early signs of oral cancer.  “Now that we have this technology,” Dr. Sansom says, “your dentist really could save your life.”