Ted Kennedy Jr. to Speak at National Cancer Survivors Day at SBUH

Sunday is National Cancer Survivors Day, a benchmark event at the Cancer Center at Stony Brook University Hospital that this year will feature Ted Kennedy Jr. as keynote speaker.

Kennedy, who is a bone cancer survivor and lost a leg to the disease at age 12, is now an attorney standing up for the rights of people with disabilities. Among his credits: He has served as a teaching fellow at Harvard University on the topic of disability policy; executive director of Facing the Challenge, a nonprofit advocacy group for people with disabilities; and has served on the board of directors of the Special Olympics.

Dr. Yusuf A. Hannun, director of the Stony Brook Cancer Center, said Kennedy was invited to speak because he is not only a survivor of cancer but because he is a survivor of pediatric cancer who has become an advocate for the disabled as well.

"It shows people that this is an important issue. It can afflict anyone, and people can cope with that," he said in an interview Thursday. "There is a very productive life after that that they can talk about. They can use it to mobilize and contribute to the fight against cancer. It brings home all these complex issues with a very human face."

It speaks to the mission of the Cancer Center as a whole, he said.

"We create new knowledge, and we try to translate that to patients through active clinical trials, through cutting edge approaches," he said.

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