Posted May 04, 2020 –

Preventing disease to prolong life…

Our friend Roger Horchow died on Saturday, May 2, 2020, at 11:36 am.

Roger was obsessed with prevention in a variety of ways. He prevented forgetfulness by keeping records of people’s names and faces (which thereby also prevented him from seeming rude) – as well as by documenting facts and figures he found important. He paid precise attention to his friends and family to prevent them from not knowing how much he loved them. He prevented misunderstandings by stating the truth without saccharine caveats. Roger was pure gold authenticity and generosity.

When I told Roger about this cancer prevention venture, his answer, delivered with a twinkle in his eye was that he’d help us but we should know he already had a very busy day job. He’d just finished his 90th year on this earth.

The reason I bring up Roger Horchow is that when I got the news he’d passed, I felt a shock like no other — even though we’d been warned he was not going to make it.

Loss of loved ones — be they young, less young, or really old — is one of the most profound of human experiences. It reminds us it’s not a bad idea to do all we can to put that day off.

What we hope to do in this series of essays and interviews is to discuss the who, the what, the when, and the there of cancer prevention.

Our first piece will be an interview with Dr. Joe Miletich, a pioneer of cervical cancer prevention. We hope you like it!

Theo Ross