 Yes, the answer is yes, Aloha United. We stand one of the great charitable organizations in the state And they make it possible to talk to some of their beneficial organisms beneficiary organizations And one of them is the American Cancer Society and our old friend Jackie Young is here She has been for many years a chief staff officer of the What do you call it American Cancer Society Hawaii chapter? I guess right and she retired a few years ago Yeah, so but she's back to talk about that. I'm back to talk because I stayed on the Hope Lodge campaign committee Ah, and I have great news today. Yeah, our building is built Hope Lodge is built the Clarence T.C. Qing Hope Lodge Doors will be open for a grand opening next Saturday in November 19th from 12 noon to 4 o'clock and then on the 29th We'll be accepting our first guest. I have a recollection that is very near the Hope Lodge is a place where people from the Neighbor islands can come and live while they're getting cancer treatment at the medical institutions in Honolulu Am I right right up the street right up the street from Bishop Street on a vineyard Avenue to 5-1 vineyard Avenue Behind the gas station next to dog the bounty hunter's office Right a little little cul-de-sac there and Thanks to Clarence T.C. Qing the naming there who gave us the first three and a half million dollars to start our campaign And the doors will be open. We're just so excited about that. I'm a lovely building. How was the capacity? 20 rooms so and it's for there's a double bed in there are two single beds And it's for a patient and a caretaker and we're hoping to welcome Neighbor Island people and people from other Pacific Islanders and people who live an hour away from Honolulu 40 miles Or an hour away so people out in Waianae north shore, you know Kahuku You know the traffic is really bad and they have to come in and get treatment and rather than fight the traffic They can stay there with a social worker or doctor's note that they they're going through cancer treatment. Yeah, so Is this cost to them free it's free it's free lodging. It's really wonderful because one of the Stressors of having cancer is having to worry about how to pay for pay for the transportation Especially if you're from the neighbor island Even if you're from the other side of the island from Kahuku and north shore driving in it's not easy to drive in anymore You know so to come in and to know you can go for treatment You can spend the night at Hope Lodge without charge We also have a van there that will be taking them to their treatments, you know So whether it's at Kaiser at tripler at Queens all the hospitals all the hospitals wherever they're or doctors cancer Doctors office, you know, we'll be able to take them there That is a big stress because driving in Honolulu is not easy Sure, and if you're not feeling well to begin with oh my god a hassle and yes cabs are expensive even uber cabs Yes, yes, but it's the traffic, you know the traffic So and they how long can they stay because sometimes, you know, this this kind of either chemo or Radiation whatever it takes is over a fairly well, you know, we're the 33rd Hope Lodge in the United States So we've already learned that they probably say up to 15 days They can stay some of us overnight, but they can say up to 15 days Frankly, there's a woman in New York who has stayed there over a year because her treatment has been so intensive and so Specialized as the only place nearby, but she doesn't at least have to worry about her lodging, you know So for us we don't expect that because we are close to our homes here But people will probably be staying up to 15 days Well, you can be flexible if there's if you're not maxed out in terms of the number of people in the 20 we have only 20 rooms, you know, so that's our maximum and when we're at full capacity We expect the 20 rooms, but from the neighbor islands about 600 people a year 650 people a year Come to Honolulu for some kind of special so you probably will be maxed out Yeah, they come for a pet scan they come for specialized treatments They come for clinical trials at the University Cancer Center So they can come and stay there instead of having to go and wait two hours at the airport fly back, you know back and forth and Worse getting hotels Oh, and when we started this a few years ago hotels, you could get a hotel room for $150 a night. I don't think you can anymore all the prices for the hotel rooms have gone up Even discounted rates that we used to get about 130 dollars is not available anymore hotel rooms are booked You know hotels would set up kind of so the special Well, they have they have for us when they have free rooms They let us know or when they not free rooms, but available rooms and we have a agreement with them But so that would be in addition to the whole car is always an issue have an excess of people You can place them in the hotels at discounted yes, but but discounted rate again. It's it's now hovering around $189. It's not cheap anymore. It's less than the $300. They pay as a walk-in You know, but it's not cheap and we're talking about the pagoda and the outbreak of resource The outbreak has been really great, but the other hotels also have been wonderful in sharing their discounted rooms You know, I remember early oh ten years ago when I was executive director And I'd be on call on the weekend for emergency calls and I remember getting a call from Kona a gentleman in the ambulance with his wife going to the airport asking on a Sunday if he could stay at one of our discounted rooms because his wife was coming back for a treatment and it was an emergency and Asking us can he please stay at a discounted room because their budget was really low So we made arrangements quickly for him to be okayed But we have emergency people people who you know handle emergency calls like that But hopefully now we can go straight to Hope Lodge and they never have to worry about that. So how Who manages them? This is an American Kansas Society white chapter Facility, but do you have a manager on site? We have a we will have a resident manager on site We also will have a facility manager and then volunteers You know, we're a great volunteer organization Yes, you are and people have already signed up to be a volunteer there to sit at the desk to welcome them to check them in to To show them around to you know, tour the facility. So yeah, we'll have volunteers That's one of the things that impressed me when I came up to see you I've made a movie on OC 16 about Yes, and You introduced me to some of your volunteers who happened to be there that day and I was so impressed with we still use them You know road to recovery. Yeah So, um, you know, where do you see this going? I mean 20 rooms 600 people Can it handle it? Will there be another Hope Lodge in our future? Well, no actually 600 people 650 people about that many come from the neighbor But of that group maybe 480 or you know 500 people need a room We'd like to give them that option. Yeah, you know, some of them will fly back on the late flight Yeah, but some of them given the choice may decide to stay so you know trying to manage this as as the exclusive American Cancer Society Hawaii chapter Hope Lodge you don't have plans for a second one. No actually the land is very expensive and we thank Queen's Hospital For giving us the land there at a dollar a year for 60 years So we paid the first 20 years, you know 20 years 20 years least at a time is renewable the next 20 the next 20 Yeah, and Queens did ask us if we could add another floor to it because it's in a prime location It's a block away from Queen's Hospital, but we're in a capital zone So we're limited to only go 60 feet high so and we and and also the footprint has to be large enough to have a Garden it has to be a certain way because of the punch bolt to capital Oh, yeah, so we can't build any higher and and the density, you know, we we looked at property in Waikakee There were properties there that was offered to us But again the traffic now for nearly as attractive No, and you know one of the things that people don't realize they think of Queens and Kaiser But there's coakini, you know, there's a strawp hospital. There's tripler and What started this whole thing was a pastor from Kauai who was a veteran and Had to go to Tripler for his chemo and radiation and Asked the congregation to ask their friends in Honolulu if they could put him up this happened in 2006 So he had to rent a car and drive it to Tripler Hospital Now Tripler has a Fisher house that they Stay there, but it accepts all kinds of patients not just cancer patients And it's full to the gills almost all the time because they come from the Pacific area and to Fisher house So they've been very cooperative with us and they're happy that we're opening a Hope Lodge in Hawaii So veterans veterans will be staying there going to Tripler Hospital people don't think of it that way But the wonderful thing about Jean is he did something about it after his experience He wrote an editorial to in the star advertiser and said we need a little advertiser Advertiser at the time. That's right and said we need a Hope Lodge in Hawaii. That was in 2006 So I called him up and I said would you be able to come to Honolulu and speak to our board? And they said of course and Joe Wyckoff, you know Joe who's chair of the board welcomed him and he spoke to the Board and said we need a Hope Lodge. It's not that easy now to just say okay We're gonna build one we had to demonstrate to the national organization that we were capable of raising the money They they weren't sure because we're such a small community But the need was so large because we're separated, you know, we're islands separated by water So first we have not really an affluent community either. Well, actually raise money Well, actually we are but there's so many organizations and thank goodness for a lower United Way Yeah provides a safety net for you know all of us non-profits, but We they told us we had to raise money for a research grant first and show that we could fund that Before they would give us the okay to go ahead with the Hope Lodge. That's where Dr. Larry Say was stepped in So he gave one of your major He's one of our major contributors. I remember that's my visit to his wife had died of cancer Yeah, and so he funded a research grant or why you'll dr. Why you'll show me at the cancer center and then said he would fund that grant once he said that they said, okay You can look for land and when you you know find the land and get everything going will go So it was in 2010. This was your project by pride. Well, you were the I guess staff officer Exactly, yeah, and so we looked for land in 2010 the board signed a resolution saying yes 2010 so six years raise 12 million dollars 12 million that was a pretty nice facility for $1,000,000 Well, the facility itself probably cost about 8 million, but we had to have a reserve for operations You know, we don't want to open the door and start begging for money right away We welcome contributions because it costs about five hundred thousand dollars a year to sustain it Well, let me let me go back to the money then so you got the one dollar a year for the land Yes, three and a half million from the Clarence Ching Foundation. That was really great Yeah, I remember I attended one of it was organized by Joe Wycoff for example a fundraising dinner at one of the hotels Yeah, where people were making contributions But you know, I that's what did you say you ultimately came up with 12 million dollars? Yes Well, I would say the major foundations in Hawaii the Atherton Foundation I I'm you know would be remiss if I started naming them because I will miss them out But Hawaiian Electric American Savings Bank Bank of Hawaii everybody's been all the the major foundations pitched in and saw the need and and gave us Larry Rodrigues their co-chair, you know, Fred pop Fred Trotter was there and he died of cancer But Larry Rodrigues stepped in and co-chaired with Dr. Larry Sue and Jim Schiller, but Jim was living in the mainland Yeah, so he would fly in every other month and when he did we would have a meeting and he's been a wonderful Chair for the Hope Lodge This is a great success and now it's coming and it's so appropriate. You're here on this on this Program right now. The thing is opening next week Saturday. It'll be a big party I hope and you'll be able to celebrate your success in this project Yeah, and let me name some other names to wait. Okay, we're gonna take a break. Okay. We come back When we come back, we're gonna name names. You'll be interested That's Jackie young. She's a retired chief staff officer at the American Cancer Society in New Wano, and we're talking about What are we talking about? Hope Lodge giving hope of giving hope at home Join us at Think Tech of Hawaii. Our show is Asia in reveal Our next program is on November 17 This is Johnson Choi your host Aloha, I'm Richard Emory. I'm with co-host Jane Sugimura of condo insider Hawaii's weekly show about association living the purpose of these videos is to educate board members and condo residents about issues relating to association living we hope they're helpful and that they assist in resolving Problems that affect the relationship between boards and their residents Each week Thursday at 3 p.m. We bring you exciting guests industry experts who for free will share their advice About how to make your association a better place to live and answer a lot of very interesting questions Aloha, we hope you'll tune in Okay, we're back live with Jackie young your retired chief staff officer at the American Cancer Society in New Wano giving hope a home talking about the Hope Which is right near Right near a queen's house on vineyard Street. Yeah, two five one vineyard, okay So, I mean great success. I mean you were there at the American Cancer Society a long time But this is a great achievement Let me emphasize one person spoke up gene redden and see rode a rodent editorial in the An op-ed piece in the in the advertiser and we saw it and we we took that and ran with it And and he's coming back for the grand opening. You'll be here, you know, so we're very excited But so many people so many community. I mean the Aloha United Way has been wonderful We fit right into their safety net of helping people to get well and their quality of life Yeah, so you wanted to name some names Jackie Interrupted only because you know, I mentioned Joe Wyckoff and and Becky Ward was our current chair But but Steven IE, you know, Ross Baker. They were all chairs during this period The doctors Darryl Corsado Paul Paul alive. They were really wonderful. Dr. Carla nip Sakamoto They're all great in in providing us with that and and what I had here is a little note When we when the board agreed to do this Somebody handed me a $10,000 check that day and it was in 2010 and she said please accept the enclose for laying Foundation setting windows and roofing the house that hope built and it was Mary friend Williamson And her husband dr. Thomas Benny Wilson from Kauai From Kauai and I kept the note because it was the first. It's very touching. Yeah money Came in right away Yeah, and since then we've had like on Maui Martin Luna who was a very well-known Lawyer and he had cancer died his family has put into put together Martin Luna a room there you know, so Maui has a room and the different islands have their rooms and It's just a wonderful They'll feel comfortable when they're there. There was something I wanted to read some Person said that hope lodges like a cocoon that when she was sick She went to hope lodge and and she felt like she was taken care of and and so was her caregiver And when she left she felt she was coming out of the cocoon and that she was healing you know a place of safety a place of safety and I Remember going to Molokai when I I went to Molokai Hospital And I announced there that we were going to build a hope lodge and immediately tears The nurses there broke out in tears because they said so many of their patients Declined to go to Honolulu for treatment because they couldn't afford the plane trip They couldn't afford to stay there People falsely think they have family that people from the neighbor islands all have family here And they can stay here when they're going through treatment, but even if they did it's crowded in in Honolulu So I'm problematic. So they would just not take the option of getting treatment. They would just No option. They would say Absolutely, so, you know rather than come and get the treatment they needed they would just stay and and die an earlier death You know, which is it and we're talking about every year 7,000 people diagnosed with cancer 2,000 people in Hawaii dying from it every year. So I just had my second cancer a year ago I had breast cancer 18 years ago, and then I had kidney cancer at a kidney removed last year. How are you doing? I'm doing fine. Yeah, and now my dog has cancer Yeah, my dog is going through chemo. So I totally empathize He had an anal gland cancer he had a two-hour surgery, but now he has to go to chemo every three weeks So I totally understand his lack of appetite and his Lethargy, you know because I went through the same thing. Thank you for sharing that I you know Can you tell us your your view of it your view of cancer where you know how people can best deal with it? Well, the way to best deal with it is to know your body, you know So and to know your body you have to you have to feel it Well, you know my daughters of it one of my daughters of vegetarian She said you wouldn't put sand in your gas tank. So don't put bad food in your tummy, you know So, you know, we have a saying in the American Cancer Society eat a rainbow That's the best advice rather than telling you particular foods to eat eat a rainbow Drink lots of water don't eat so much processed food Exercise, I mean those are common ways to keep yourself healthy for everything But know your body enough that if a lump comes up if there's the thing about cancer There are symptoms that come late But there are symptoms that come early and the early ones are little lumps that you may feel and in Hawaii You know for melanoma, that's a concern and Martin Luna was Filipino. He was dark. He had melanoma. I mean so it's not The color of your skin you can get melanoma of your dark skin, you know So don't think you're immune from the sun just because you have dark skin Also, we have a campaign for colorectal cancer if you're over 50 years old be sure to ask for a colonoscopy Once they find them and I went through that because I had polyps and they were removed once they're removed They don't grow into a cancer. So that's an early Detection that stops cancer also. So smoking smoking has gone down That's why the cancer center is having a little difficult time because the cancer center was built on the Tax money money Would continue but the we did such a good job educating people that smoking rates went down And we don't know the effect of e-cigarettes now though electronic cigarettes. It's not good No, it's not good But that went down and that's a good note But but the cancer center is a wonderful addition to our community They have some Significant clinical trials that they are offering to people and to be able to offer it to the neighbor island people is also good Not just to Honolulu We are no Honolulu forget that when you live in the neighborhood is as wonderful It is to live on the other islands. We actually have high technology on this island Yeah, the other islands aren't able to have the high tech machines that we have and we have more efficient In one place. Yes. Yeah, I mean they have a lack of doctors on the neighbor islands, you know So but they do have on colleges there But it's the technology that brings them to Honolulu brings them to Queens Chirpler coquettie straw, you know, I wanted to I wanted to take a few minutes with you and talk about cancer in the country Yeah, well possibly the world and can how it affects the The mission of the American Cancer Society and how the cancer society itself changes to meet the changes in medicine in technology That's a big question Sorry, but I actually have been to India on a with the American Cancer Society to share our success in tobacco education I went there and and did a seminar on on that and access to care Yeah, I visited some of their hospitals, which are not as Sanitized a lot of the places are not as sanitary or as as we have it We're clean freaks in the United States went to Vietnam and we did the same thing there in Vietnam We educated them but in Vietnam you had people going in the streets with trays of cigarettes giving them samples You know, so it's like really fighting the the tobacco companies And they are really bombarding the Asian countries with ads, you know, but American companies American companies, but we've worked with China for instance when they had the Olympics there to have them banned smoking in certain Arenas so we actually American Cancer Society made agreements with them so they don't have yeah So we have learned that we can't just be Strictly with the American Cancer Society We need to be global because what we do impacts the world We do it as the invitation of the other countries and we share our information We definitely have the technology in the United States. We have the education. We have the means to really Reduce cancer in the world and early detection is really key Yeah, and you're funding research. What kinds of research do you fund? Well, we have a research branch at the university at the American Cancer Society in the national office and We actually have People come to ask us they apply for special research grant And this is why the Dr. Y. Lil Xiaomi that Dr. Larry sue funded He had a special thing. He was looking for I've looked at his publication since then and if they're groundbreaking You know when they show markers and in your blood that show you that you might have cancer Those are the kinds of things they're finding as they look more and more for ways to do early detection And his research is in that way looking for a marker, you know And there are other research like that, you know where they're looking for certain ways to test blood to test for colon cancer without the Without what people want to avoid which is you know going you know into your rear end and the Colonoscopy there are ways to go down this way now and look so there's just all kinds of ways to make testing easier when you make Testing easier or you can find it in the blood. There's even a breakthrough a teenage boy Finding a marker for cancer in blood through blood tests and it isn't yet spread But those are the breakthroughs that are that are we can look forward to in the future. No magic bullet though Because they're over a hundred different kinds of cancers, right? I mean there's not just one cancer We we think of it cure cancer, but it's cure cancers It's plural over a hundred different so I have to deal with each one each one and each one has a different marker You know a different way you have blood cancers, and you you know have organ cancers, and you know mark to Kai You know unfortunately died at a young age, you know from cancer pancreatic cancer Which isn't which is a killer. Yeah, and then you have other people that have brain cancer, and you know, but for our children 85% of their cancers have now given them a quality of life where they're living in they're living into their 20s and 30s Where before they wouldn't get out of their teens So for leukemia and other childhood cancers, they're able to to you know, give them a better quality of life We're just excited about this is there more cancer in the world now today, or is it we have seeing more cancer that Always in existence. I think it was always there But when people died they frankly didn't want to talk about it because they say it was sort of taboo That if you had cancer in your family your whole family would be like, oh, you know There's bad blood in your and so people didn't talk about it But way back I think Betty Ford happy Rockefeller Well, the women who first said they had breast cancer and talked about it and that made all the difference And now you have our making strides where people wear pink shirts and in the month of October and are out, you know marching but the way to really cure our cancers is to fund cancer research our ACS can which is our Advocacy group that's the difference that's happening now is that we're putting much more effort into advocacy So if anybody listening wants to join our ACS can call up our 1-800-227-2345 number and ask how they can be an advocate for cancer We need to support the Cancer Center University of Hawaii Cancer Center because it's really It's really going to be central in what we do in Hawaii and they do some really important They do some fantastic work, so please support the University of Hawaii Cancer Center fund our research programs You know on the mainland and the National Institute for Health We lobby Congress our four representatives our two senators to their wonderful in Supporting as they all understand they all they all know Brian Schatz's father I believe passed over but Maisie's been wonderful our two senators Tulsi You know has been really good and Colleen has always been behind us So we've got great people in Congress, which we will and I don't think we're conscious of this We actually take action on it. We build things like you know the the Hope Lodge Yeah, and so we are ahead of the game, aren't we well, and then when you look at the cancer survivors We have about 80,000 cancer survivors and now it would fill a low-estadium three times over That many cancer survivors to the point where people Don't talk about it as much as they used to but there's a cancer survivor Everywhere you go and it's not necessarily a death sentence these days No, and that's I mean, you know, I'm an 18 year breast cancer survivor by the kidney removed one year ago You know my dogs a cancer survivor, you know, so yes We can deal with it. It's all about I frankly cried more for my dog You know when I found out he had cancer That's Jackie. Yeah score. She she knows it personally. She knows it for the years. She's spent no legislature She knows it from the American Cancer Society From their facilities here and especially now including now hope has a home I hope has a home so if I want to go how would I go next Saturday November 19th from noon to 4 o'clock show up But I will be there I'd be glad to show you around and parking is a central middle school across the street There are lots of parking there and just walk in and you'll see what a comfortable place It is, you know just that really there'll be a kitchen there You can cook your own food. You don't want people cooking for you when you have cancer your taste buds change. Yes