GIST happened soon after her first quilt was accepted into a quilt exhibit and after participating in her first holiday craft show last December. Every GIST patient has a unique story about how they were diagnosed and where their journey takes them but Claire can literally credit a recurrence of her sister's ovarian cancer in January as the reason she found her GIST tumor.
You may have spotted a creation by May & Watkins Design and not even realized it. They create public art, or industrial sculptures – art that is commissioned for public spaces. The partnership of artists, Carol May and Tim Watkins, began after meeting as 20-somethings on scholarship at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine.
Pratt institute graduate, John Paul Zagami studied industrial design. John’s journey with GIST began with unexplainable digestive issues. After suffering a kidney stone attack which led to an ER visit, a mass was found.
Despite the challenges of Covid, the LRG has quickly developed new ways of working together virtually. We have kept afloat and served our community well during this dark year. These points of light show just how far we've come this year.
The first annual Women in Sarcoma gala was held virtually on Thursday, December 10th, 2020. It was a fantastic evening where the Life Raft Group celebrated some phenomenal women within the community.
Angel Selena Rodriguez was living what she considered a very normal life. She was studying medicine, playing violin in an orchestra, and enjoying painting and drawing, and university in Venezuela.
April Lopossa was faced with a daunting decision - to take Gleevec for her newly diagnosed GIST pre-surgery or wait until she delivered her unborn child.
The Life Raft Group is committed to ensuring your GIST journey is as manageable as possible. We want to ensure that we expand our resources in order to help patients stay on their treatment longer by helping them to manage their side effects.
The Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) meeting was held Nov 18-21st and was chaired by three women in the field. This year’s meeting special because it was held virtually due to COVID-19. One of the new aims of the CTOS organization is to incorporate the patient perspective in more of its sessions.
CTOS 2020 was conducted virtually from November 18th through the 21st, given the nature of our current environment, much of the content of the conference centered on COVID-19 and its impact on cancer patients, but there were a number of sessions and presentations and posters devoted to GIST as well.
