Funny lady, former Malibu Times Magazine cover girl and cancer crusader Fran Drescher is ready to scale the summit — the women’s health summit, that is.
Fran and her organization Cancer Schmancer hope to raise awareness and money at her daylong seminar on Oct. 13 at the Skirball Center.
“The Nanny” star and activist will be honoring Rosie O’Donnell and Senator Barbara Boxer, along with locals like Ed Begley Jr. and Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group.
The summit features engaging and informative panels. Another big draw is a Q&A session with top experts in the fields of integrative medicine and healthy living with takeaway info and tips. Improving your environment, nutrition and self-empowerment are just a few of the overall goals.
Fran emphasizes the role of education on her website. It’s filled with helpful hints beginning with “Five Painless Ways to Detox Your Home.”
The popular actress has a lot of advice on keeping healthy on the home front. Fran being Fran, she is a courageous, brave and outspoken advocate.
As a uterine cancer survivor, she says that tackling a tricky disease like cancer is never easy.
As she tells it, she faced a setback due to a misdiagnosis and was treated for a condition she didn’t have. Eventually, her worst fears were confirmed, but it took two years and eight doctors to get to that point.
In 2002 with her trademark style, she wrote “Cancer Schmancer,” which has given comfort and hope to fellow sufferers. She wrote of her frustration and it was only after a book tour that she realized she was not alone. “The book was not the end,” she says, “but the beginning of a life mission to improve health care in America.”
Her next step was to set up the Cancer Schmancer Foundation. Through her organization she hopes to take out the fear of diagnosis and to transform women from patients to intelligent medical consumers.
What’s more, she hopes to shift priorities from searching for a cure to prevention and early detection. And she is more than happy to share her life lessons and experience.
“We need to take control of our bodies,” she says. “We need to become greater partners with our physicians and galvanize as one.” She also aims to get the word out to Washington and “let our legislators know that the collective female vote is louder and more powerful than that of the richest corporate lobbyists.”
In true Fran style, she is honest and upfront about her beliefs. “I got famous, then I got cancer and now I live to talk about it,” she explains. Adding, “Sometimes the best gifts come in the ugliest packages.”
She is quick to enlist and provide promise for others saying, “It’s time to put on your sun block and get ready for a new dawn.”
For more information, see CancerSchmancher.org.