By Randy Ray
Ottawa entrepreneur Mr. Frank Hegyi, a native of Nyõgér, Hungary, is pulling together a new book that will help people with cancer face the challenge of living and beating the disease.
Challenges of Living With Cancer is to be published in June and will feature the stories of 30 people who have survived cancer, including CTV Ottawa broadcaster Max Keeping, former Ottawa major Jacquelin Holzman and Mr. Hegyi, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer about two years ago.
About 160,000 cases of cancer are diagnosed in Canada every year, says the Canadian Cancer Society.
“The stories are very inspirational, very motivating,’’ says Mr. Hegyi, who left Hungary in 1956 after the revolution was defeated. After a lengthy career with the federal government, he now runs Hegyi Geomatics International Inc., an Ottawa company that develops technology that helps mobilize first responders when disasters, such as tsunamis, floods, and oil spills occur.
“Each one will demonstrate how these people felt when they were diagnosed, how they faced the challenge, how they changed their lifestyle and the changes they made in order to survive.’’
Some of those in the book were given little more than a year to live after their diagnosis but 30 years later are enjoying productive lives, says Hegyi, who is coordinator and lead author of the paperback book, which will consist of about 250 pages.
Challenges of Living With Cancer will also provide descriptions of 13 different kinds of major cancers to give people unbiased information supported by at least three reputable medical sources. The information will include areas of the body the cancers attack and their symptoms and where readers can find more information
And the book will provide tips for doctors and support groups about how to do better job, “not so much clinically but emotionally’’ when dealing with cancer patients. “When doctors give patients the news it has to be truthful but it should also be done with a certain degree of gentleness,’’ he says.
Mr. Hegyi is hoping to raise $100,000 from the sale of the book. Proceeds will be split 50-50 between cancer researchers in Ottawa and India, where the book will be published, partly because Hegyi has a solid publishing contact there but also because that country has a high incidence of cancer but little educational material and few support groups to help cancer patients cope.
Mr. Hegyi’s tips in the book are aimed at both cancer prevention and survival.
“My most important advice is for people to have regular yearly checkups because early diagnosis is the most important thing. Then, if they are diagnosed, they should have a positive attitude and change their lifestyle.”
When you get the disease instead of thinking it is the end of the world, consider that it is just a wake up call and that you will have to change your life a little bit cause you are going to survive. We all believe cancer can be beaten.
If you’d like your story included in the book, please contact Frank Hegyi at: (613) 526-9967 or by email: fhegyi@hegyigeomatics.com