Source: News Channel 9
Author: Kevin Sims

Tuesday on the Oprah Winfrey Show, movie critic Roger Ebert is talking about his battle with oral cancer.  That’s a fight many folks here in the Tennessee Valley face everyday.  And now there’s a support group specifically for those survivors.

Five days a week, Jeanna Richelson is an engineer at Sisken Steel.  365 days a year, she’s an oral cancer survivor.  “They found it in the base of my tongue.  I had surgery and spent nine days in the hospital,” says Richelson.  “I had a feeding tube, I was a mess.”

What a difference a decade makes.  Nearly ten years after her diagnosis, Jeanna is cancer-free and is spear-heading that support group for others.  “I’m meeting people who are young mothers in their 20’s who have oral cancer and they’ve never smoked,” says Richelson.  “It used to be the old man’s smoking disease but not anymore.”  When she started her support group last summer, one person showed up for the first meeting.  Now they’re up to twenty.

That’s why she says it’s so important for celebrities like Roger Ebert to tell their stories.  At times, even though she’s happily married, Richelson felt like she had nowhere to turn.  Now she wears her battle scars proudly.  Like the one on her right arm where doctors transplanted a muscle to her tongue.  “There are some (victims) that are newly diagnosed and they can see that we have survived it no matter how difficult it is,” says Richelson.

The hard parts aren’t all behind her though.  Nearly 90 radiation treatments not only killed the cancer but damaged good tissue too.  Now, like other oral cancer survivors, she has trouble swallowing and struggles with a dry mouth.  “You really don’t think about it but that’s the part that pushes food down,” according to Richelson.  “It’s such a natural thing for all of us.  You don’t think about how complicated the throat is.  If it happens, it’s one day at a time.”

And that day is made easier with some support.

Saturday, April 10th is the area’s first Oral Cancer Awareness Walk at the Tennessee Riverpark.  Newschannel 9’s Marcia Kling will be there to tell her own survivor story.  You can sign up or find out more information by clicking here.