Roger Ebert Announces Return Of Cancer, Says He’s Taking ‘Leave Of Presence’

By: Tom Kludt Date: 9:46 AM EDT, Wednesday April 3, 2013Source: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert announced Tuesday evening in a post on his Chicago Sun-Times blog that he has suffered a return of cancer. As a result, Ebert — who has written prolifically in recent years on a host of topics other than just cinema — said he will be taking a "leave of presence." "What in the world is a leave of presence? It means I am not going away," Ebert wrote. "My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers handpicked and greatly admired by me. What's more, I'll be able at last to do what I've always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review." In 2012, Ebert said he penned 306 movie reviews, one or two blog posts per week and "assorted other articles" — a higher output than any other point in his career. The blog post commemorated the 46th anniversary of Ebert joining the Sun-Times as a film critic. Ebert suffered a hip fracture in December, which led to the latest diagnosis of cancer. He was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002, and in 2006 he lost his ability to speak after his carotid artery burst during a surgery to remove cancer located in his jaw. The latest health episode, Ebert wrote, will likely color his writing going forward. "At this point in my life, in addition to [...]

2013-04-03T10:54:36-07:00April, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

First-time walk raises awareness of oral cancer

Source: indarticles.com Author: staff A support group for people with oral and head and neck cancer is looking to send a message Saturday with its inaugural Oral Cancer Awareness Walk, co-sponsored by the Oral Cancer Foundation. "Last year approximately 35,700 new cases were diagnosed in the United States, and there were about 7,600 deaths," walk organizers said in a news release. "Sixty percent of people aren't diagnosed until the cancer has progressed to Stage III or IV, and almost half of those victims die within five years. But if caught early, oral cancer has one of the highest overall treatment and survival rates." Organizers hope the walk will call attention to the importance of early detection and prevention, not only to the general public but to dentists, who spot problems. Perhaps the highest-profile patient is movie critic Roger Ebert, who has recently detailed his battle with oral cancer. Locally, Jeanna Richelson, an engineer at Siskin Steel, has shared her story. Now cancer-free, she is spearheading the support group, known officially as the Chattanooga Chapter of Support for People With Oral and Head and Neck Cancer. "When I was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2001, I had no idea how my life would be changed forever," she said in the news release. "If I can save one life or keep one person from having to go through the hardships that me and so many others have gone through, it will be worth it." Registration for the walk begins at 10 a.m. [...]

Roger Ebert’s story inspiring local cancer survivors

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 [...]

2010-03-05T07:34:53-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Roger Ebert ‘ridiculously happy’ after receiving new computerized voice produced from his own words

Source: NYDailyNews Author: Helen Kennedy Famed movie critic Roger Ebert, who was robbed of speech by throat cancer, has a new computerized voice cobbled together from words he recorded for DVD commentary tracks. "It's nice to think of all these great movies sloshing around and coming out as my voice," he wrote in a column Sunday. Ebert's new voice is a mix of words he said on the DVD critiques for everything from classics like "Casablanca" and "Citizen Kane" to the cult porn film he wrote, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls." He wrote that he had been using standard computer programs to turn typed text into sound, including one his wife liked where the speaker "had a British accent and sounded like a slightly crabby headmaster." But his own words - taken from original recordings unearthed in warehouses at Warner Brothers, the Criterion Collection, New Line and 20th Century Fox - are a vast improvement, he said. "Yes, 'Roger Jr.' needs to be smoother in tone and steadier in pacing, but the little rascal is good. To hear him coming from my own computer made me ridiculously happy," Ebert wrote. "I played it for (wife) Chaz, and she said, yes, she could tell it was me." Since being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002, and suffering numerous surgeries and some near-fatal complications, Ebert, of Chicago, lost the ability to speak, eat and drink. He uses a feeding tube and needs 24-hour nursing care. He has written poignantly about his [...]

2010-03-01T12:21:39-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Roger Ebert: the essential man

Source: Esquire Magazine Author: Chris Jones It has been nearly four years since Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. Now television's most famous movie critic is rarely seen and never heard, but his words have never stopped. For the 281st time in the last ten months Roger Ebert is sitting down to watch a movie in the Lake Street Screening Room, on the sixteenth floor of what used to pass for a skyscraper in the Loop. Ebert's been coming to it for nearly thirty years, along with the rest of Chicago's increasingly venerable collection of movie critics. More than a dozen of them are here this afternoon, sitting together in the dark. Some of them look as though they plan on camping out, with their coats, blankets, lunches, and laptops spread out on the seats around them. The critics might watch three or four movies in a single day, and they have rules and rituals along with their lunches to make it through. The small, fabric-walled room has forty-nine purple seats in it; Ebert always occupies the aisle seat in the last row, closest to the door. His wife, Chaz, in her capacity as vice-president of the Ebert Company, sits two seats over, closer to the middle, next to a little table. She's sitting there now, drinking from a tall paper cup. Michael Phillips, Ebert's bearded, bespectacled replacement on At the Movies, is on the other side of the room, one row down. The guy who [...]

2010-02-23T12:40:29-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Oral cancer’s toll, cruel

Source: CNN Author: Madison Park (CNN) -- It brought a tough, All-Star NBA coach to tears this week. And it stilled the voice of a famous film critic. Head and neck cancers are rare, but known to be severe -- they can strip away a person's voice, distort the face and rob the basic abilities to eat, drink and swallow. The cancer can be so disfiguring, some patients seldom appear in public. In a tear-filled press conference this week, Denver Nuggets coach George Karl announced he has a type of neck and throat cancer. Karl said he will continue to coach, but will miss some games and practices. His type of cancer -- a squamous cell tumor found on his right tonsil -- is the most common and expected to be treatable with radiation and chemotherapy. Also this week, Esquire profiled film critic Roger Ebert, who also had a head and neck cancer. He suffered complications from surgery to treat the cancer that had spread to the salivary gland. The magazine published a full-page photo of the film critic, who no longer has a lower jaw. Ebert spent little time feeling sorry for himself: "If we think we have physical imperfections, obsessing about them is only destructive. Low self-esteem involves imagining the worst that other people can think about you. That means they're living upstairs in the rent-free room," he wrote on his blog after the photo published. While Ebert cannot speak, he continues to lambaste bad movies online. Head and neck [...]

2010-02-20T22:24:38-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|
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