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Category: Health

Francis M inspires

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When a friend, Marlyn Divinagracia, 32-year old wife of detained Scout Ranger Capt. Ervin Divinagracia, was diagnosed to have leukemina Nov. 7 last year, we told her not to lose hope and cited rapper Francis Magalona.

“Look at Francis Magalona. He has leukemia and he has survived it,” we told her. It was announced in August 2008 that Francis had leukemia.

Marlyn’s battle with leukemia was swift. One week after, we bade goodbye to her.

Francis also bade goodbye last Friday. But in his seven-month battle with leukemia, he showed how to turn the prospect of death into a celebration of life. In his blog (http://francismagalona.multiply.com), the Jan. 9, 2009 entry was about the visit of artist-magician Jeffrey Tam while he was in a recording session with “Ely B” at Tracks studio in Pasig.

Bibeth talks of Francis M

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This is one of the three photos in Francis M’s last blog entry dated Jan. 14, 2009 as he was preparing for his fourth chemo.

by Bibeth Orteza
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Thursday night, March 5, I had a meeting with Malou Choa-Fagar, Executive
Producer of Eat Bulaga. The meeting stretched all the way to 4:30 a.m.,
Malou had been informed by Tita Rose (Rosa Rosal) that it was a matter of
time, for Kiko. My friend of many years back was sad, terribly sad, for
Francis called her ³Mama,² and was really close to her. The next day, March
6, at a lunch meeting with Gabriela party-list Rep. Liza Maza, I got a text
from Malou: ³Francis passed this noon.² I was stunned.

March is usually when I work on The ³Eat Bulaga² Holy Week drama episodes as
writer and director. For this year, before we found out we weren¹t going to
do any, Kiko through his wife Pia agreed to the plot I outlined on the
phone. He was to play himself, he was willing to lend us videos and photos
of his treatment, do his voice-over narration, with scenes of his treatment
to intercut with fictional stories about other people who want to give up
because jobless, because spurned by a lover, because unable to deal with an
in-law, etc., with the message ³Yo, I ain¹t giving up, so don¹t.² The
project sadly didn¹t push through.

Cigarette widow

Pumayag si Boots Anson-Roa na “cigarette widow” ang itawag sa kanya.

Si Barbara Dacanay ng Gulf News ang nakaisip nito sa seminar ng “Women, Media & Tobacco” na inurganisa ng Women’s Media Circle na ginanap sa Boracay.

Mga 25 na kababaihan, karamihan nagta-trabaho sa media, ang nag-uusap kung paano makatulong ang mga kababaihan sa mga bills na tinatalakay ngayon sa kongreso na mapigilan ang paglaganap ng paninigarilyo na alam naman ng lahat na walang kabutihang nabibigay sa buhay.

A healthy lifestyle keeps cancer away

The place to go to this weekend is the Pink Kitchen in Rockwell Tent in Makati.

Pink Kitchen is a fund-raising event of ICanServe Foundation, an advocacy group of mostly breast cancer survivors that provides hope and help to those afflicted with cancer.

Pink Kitchen gathers the country’s culinary experts who will showcase their yummy treats, in the words of Bettina Osmeña, one of the organizers, for very reasonable prices. In the evening, entertainment will be provided by Bituin Escalante, Leah Navarro, Peppermint Jam, cellist Renato Lucas and the University of Asia and the Pacific Chorale.

Breastfeeding gets a boost

Once again something good is coming out of a bad thing.

The upside in this tainted-milk-from-China disaster is that women are realizing the merits of breastfeeding.

This is good because breastfeeding was becoming a vanishing practice here in the Philippines. In a forum last year, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said studies show that less and less Filipino mothers are breastfeeding because of the power of false, malicious claims being peddled by multinational milk companies.

Kasakiman

Kung titingnan natin ang dahilan ng financial crisis sa Amerika at ang eskandalo sa nakakalason na gatas sa China na yumayanig ngayon sa buong mundo, ang puno’t dulo ay kasakiman. Ang walang kabusugan na pagnanasa ng ilang tao sa pera.

Hindi ko masyado alam ang pasikot-sikot sa mga bagay na financial (kaya hindi talaga ako yayaman) ngunit ang pagka-intindi ko sa nangyari sa Amerika ay ang malalaking mga investment firms katulad ng Lehman Brothers ay pera sa mga sinasabi nilang “subprimes” o mga negosyo na hindi masyadong establisado ngunit malaki ang tubo. Yan ang magic word: malaki ang tubo.

Dito sa mundo, lahat may kapalit. Kung gusto mo sigurado, wala masyadong risk, maliit lang ang tubo. Kung gusto mo malaking tubo sa maigsing panahon, sumali ka sa mahilig sumugal. Kapag tsumamba, jackpot. Kapag minalas naman, bagsak. Ganun ang nangyari ngayon sa Amerika.

Don’t buy these milk products

BFAD net yields a mixed catch
by Gerard Naval
Malaya

The Bureau of Food Drugs yesterday released a partial list of products that it said it was testing for possible melamine contamination.

BFAD said although these products did not originate from China, their manufacturers might have sourced raw materials from China.

The list of 54 products includes some of the more popular brands such as Snickers, Anlene, Nestlé, M&M and Anchor.

Toxic na gatas

Sinabi una ng Food and Drug Agency na wala dito sa Pilipinas ang kontaminado na gatas na galing sa China. Mali pala.

Nadiskubre ng GMA News na ang gatas na “Monmilk” ay galing sa China at gawa ng Mengniu Dairy Group Co. and Yili Industrial Group Co, dalawa sa kumpanyang nadiskubre na ang kanilang gatas ay may melanine, isang toxic na kemikal na nagre-resulta na pagbubu-o ng bato sa kidney.

Bumili ang GMA News team ng tetrapak ng “Monmilk” na kanilang binili sa malls sa Quezon City at Divisoria.