The following announcement was written by Strategic Book Group, LLC , publishers of Legacy for Donna: A Palliative Death Full of Blessings, A Plea for Preventive Genealogies:
Jan 24, 2011 – SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario, Canada – January 24, 2011 - Denise Rodda, a physician’s assistant and nurse from Sault Ste. Marie, was inspired to write a book dedicated to her sister, Donna, who died in 2008 following a 12-year battle with cancer. Legacy for Donna tells of the importance of researching your family’s medical history.
The author has donated some of the proceeds from her book to the Sault Area Hospital Foundation’s Cancer Care Fund (for more on the hospital Foundation, visit www.sah.on.ca/sahfoundation.php?pageid=450). An online interview with Rodda on Susan Hunter's Daytime Morning Show on Soonews.ca is at http://www.soonews.ca/viewarticle.php?id=28990.
Not only is Rodda’s book a personal and riveting account of nursing her dying sister, but Legacy for Donna also examines the genetic predisposition in her family for cancer. Though Rodda herself is cancer-free, the BRAC2 genetic mutation that is prevalent in her family makes Rodda more likely to develop breast cancer (which two of her sisters have had), ovarian cancer (which took Donna’s life), pancreatic cancer and melanoma.
The need for families to make health genealogies is addressed in the book, because this history can be used to make important lifestyle choices, and it should be a natural part of our health prevention strategies.
The importance of family health familiarity cannot be overstated, according to Rodda. She said most people wait for tragedy to strike before taking action. “People get diseases in their 40s, 50s or 60s, and only after that do they look back and notice trends in their family history.” If people were to study their family genealogy earlier in life, “there would be so many little things they could do that would be proactive in¬stead of reactive.”
Legacy for Donna: A Palliative Death Full of Blessings, A Plea for Preventive Genealogies (ISBN: 978-1-60911-589-0) is available for $17.95 and can be ordered through the publisher’s website:
http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/LegacyForDonna.html or at www.amazon.com or http://search.barnesandnoble.com.
