Fighting Cancer One Day at a Time

For 69-year-old New Jersey native Rona Greenberg, cancer has always been a constant. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 37 and passed away six years later, when Rona was 19 years old. In 1997, just three years after the BRCA genes 1 and 2 mutations were identified, Rona and her three sisters participated in a clinical study for high-risk Ashkenazi women.

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Tay-Sachs: A Parent’s Story

In the meantime, we took Evan to see a pediatric ophthalmologist. Midway through the exam, the doctor found a cherry-red spot on his retina. This news was like having a dagger stabbed through our hearts, since this was an almost certain indicator that Evan had Tay-Sachs disease. I contacted my OB-GYN, who, upon re-examining my records, discovered that I had actually tested positive as a Tay-Sachs carrier.

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The Road to Discovery

Rachel Chaikof was two years old when, with the help of cochlear implants, she heard her mother’s voice for the first time. “Cry Rachel, cry Rachel, ” her mother sang, alongside Rachel’s grandmother, who clapped her hands, watching her granddaughter, born completely deaf, respond to sound. “My family and I never understood why my sister and I were born deaf,” Rachel, now 30, says, “We knew it was genetic, but we never really had an answer.”

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