Hereditary Colon Cancer Foundation Logo
The Gut Check
  A quarterly newsletter serving the  hereditary colorectal cancer community
Issue No. 13 - August, 2016
Foundation Friend

As the longhot days begin to give way to the first cool breezes of fall, so do we conclude a fast-paced summer, chocked full of projects and deadlines, and begin a season of conferences and family days. We are very excited to tell you about what we’ve been up to… Iomise to try and keep it brief :-)

We hope that your summer is drawing to a beautiful end and that you have grand plans for this upcoming Labor Day weekend. If we can do anything to support you, your family, or your patients, please drop us a line or give us a call. We’re ALWAYS here!

Travis & Shawnie Bray
Founders
The Foundation Family Just Got Bigger!
Gone are the days of Shawnie and Travis working at 150% capacity! We are excited, and relieved, to introduce two new faces - Lisa Mortimer and Wendi Moran.
Lisa joined us last fall working part time on several important services. Webinar participants have likely become acquainted with Lisa when you have had questions about the series and CEUs. Others might notice all the new content and website improvements she’s been diligently working on for the past few months. We are so grateful for her time and efforts!
Wendi began working with us on special projects in 2013 and has now come on board full-time.  She is presently working on support programs including a new brochure for medical professionals to distribute in their clinics, a virtual 5K, a completely new website, and, at the same time, whipping our office into shape by managing our bookkeeper, accountant, lawyer, and payroll service. We wonder how we made it as far as we have without her!
A Patient's Guide to  Lynch Syndrome
We are extremely excited to announce 'A Patient's Guide to Lynch Syndrome.' We were honored to work with the US's top Lynch syndrome experts and patient advocates on this guide. Our contributing medical professionals include Rick Boland, MD, Heather Hampel, MS, CGC, and Karen Lu, MD. Our contributing patient advocates included Reagan Barnett, PhD, Dave Dubin and Sharon Perlman.

The end result is a resource that is written by patients, for patients, and verified by some of the nation's top experts in Lynch syndrome. We hope you find it useful to your family and/or clinic!

Helping Families Find Quality Care
Since the creation of the Expert Care Facility list in 2012, we’ve enjoyed directing thousands of families to health care providers experienced with treating hereditary syndromes. In an effort to make it even easier to find qualified care, we integrated our provider and genetic counselor lists AND added names from the international community into one HCC Provider Directory.

The next step is to expand this list to include entire high-risk teams. If you work with additional specialists who should be in the directory, including gastroenterologists, genetic counselors, gynecologists, dermatologists, oncologists, and surgeons, please click here to add them.
HCC Family Days
Registration is open for our upcoming Family Days in Buffalo and Chicago!

These free events are a great time to meet other families with your condition, learn from the experts, and connect with a team of specialists who can care for you and your loved ones. We hope to see you there!
October 22nd - Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY
October 29th - University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL

You can also check out the video recordings from our July 23rd event!
To host an HCC Family Day at your institution, please contact Shawnie Bray.
HCC Families are in Argentina too!
The 16th Annual Coloproctology Course, hosted by Dr. Carlos Vacarro and Hospital Italiano was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This year, the course included time dedicated to educating ~500 gastroenterolgists and surgeons about hereditary syndromes. Travis was thrilled to make the “honored guest” list of speakers. His presentation focused on how patient advocacy organizations, like HCCF, and the medical community can work together to better support HCC families. We also met with Lina Nunez, Coordinator of the National Plan for Familial and Hereditary Tumors at Argentina's National Cancer Institute, to share strategies for increasing early diagnosis of these syndromes. All and all, it was an inspiring trip that we hope will impact families in the years to come.
Give a gift today to support our work with the hereditary colon cancer community. When YOU donate…we care for families…quality of life improves!