-- CALENDAR ANNOUNCEMENT --

UC DAVIS CANCER CENTER, SACRAMENTO STATE AND NATIONAL OVARIAN CANCER COALITION HOST FREE PUBLIC ART EXHIBIT

Part of a month-long series of activities to focus attention on the “cancer that whispers”

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) – "Body Image/Body Essence," a traveling exhibit of artwork created by Massachusetts-based sculptor John Magnan as a response to his wife’s diagnosis of ovarian cancer, will make its West Coast debut at Sacramento State’s University Library Annex Gallery, at 6000 J St. in Sacramento, March 24 through April 27. The exhibit is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Sacramento Division of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition and the UC Davis Cancer Center/Sacramento State Partnership to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities through Education, Research and Training.

The groups have planned a month-long series of activities to raise awareness of a cancer that will kill an estimated 1,650 California women this year.

The art exhibit is the campaign’s centerpiece. The collection has made 12 stops, including the Boston Museum of Science, the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

“Ovarian cancer is sometimes called a silent disease,” said Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, director of the Outreach Research and Education Program at UC Davis Cancer Center. “This art exhibit provides powerful visual symbols that will help us break the silence, and, with the other educational activities we have developed, spark a public dialogue that will, ultimately, save lives.”

Related ovarian cancer awareness activities include an Evening with Experts community forum co-sponsored by the American Cancer Society at UC Davis Cancer Center on April 26, a series of presentations for students at Sacramento State, and a two-day conference for health-care providers sponsored by the UC Davis Office of Continuing Medical Education.

For more information about the exhibit and other awareness activities, contact Toni Poppe at (916) 734-5786 or visit www.sacstate-ucdcc.com. For background about the artist and his collection, visit www.bodyimage-bodyessence.com. For information about ovarian cancer and its early warning signs, visit www.ovarian.org.