
Ronald Warnick, MD, with special guest Doc Rodgers at Thursday’s wine-tasting event. Photo by Dave Collins/UC Academic Health Center Communications Services.
Some 240 friends of the UC Brain Tumor Center enjoyed food, friendship and fund-raising Thursday night at the second annual wine-tasting event at the CARE-Crawley Building on the UC Academic Health Center campus. Dozens of wines were sampled, and delicious food was served. Rich Seal, a member of the Brain Tumor Center’s Community Advisory Board, served as event chair.
Ronald Warnick, MD, Medical Director of the Brain Tumor Center, announced that proceeds from the event are being earmarked for one or more educational kiosks, which will be placed at Brain Tumor Center treatment sites.
Last year’s wine-tasting event funded a clinical trial that explored whether a two-drug treatment could help reduce the incidence of radiation necrosis (a lesion that usually occurs at the original tumor site) after radiosurgery in patients with metastatic brain cancer.
Doc Rodgers, the 700WLW radio personality who has been treated at the UC Brain Tumor Center for metastatic brain tumors, gave an uplifting speech, punctuated by his trademark sense of humor. Doc, a non-smoker and former baseball pitcher who looks as if he could still throw a pretty mean fastball, had been suffering from undiagnosed lung cancer for some time when a headache that “felt like a nail in the middle of my head” forced him to the hospital and, ultimately, a diagnosis.
Treatment for the metastasis and lung cancer began immediately. “My brain tumor may have saved my life,” he reflected.
Doc closed his remarks by reading a message from a fortune cookie that he keeps with him: “Your cheerful outlook is one of your assets.”
“I’ve held onto it,” Doc said. “It’s your attitude that matters. I’m going to continue holding onto this because truer words were never spoken.”