WMMT'S HEALTH MATTERS
Welcome to the online home of WMMT's Health Matters, our multifaceted series of health-related programming. Here in the main archive, you'll find podcasts of all of our Health Matters projects:
- Dr. Van Breeding's monthly Health Matters call-in show on a health-related topic, begun this past January and airing on the fourth Monday of each month
- Mountain Survivors, a brand-new monthly series featuring interviews with survivors of cancer. Produced and hosted by WMMT's own Sam Neace, himself a cancer survivor, this program will give local voice to this devastating health issue that impacts the coalfields at a far higher rate than the national average, and will share the stories of those who have persevered through this incredibly serious adversity
- Health-related stories on WMMT's bi-weekly public affairs program on life in the central Appalachian mountains, Mountain News & World Report
At the heart of all of our Health Matters programming is a desire to foster healthier mountain communities by making helping make general and preventative health information and stories more available to folks here in the coalfields, an area with a serious comparative lack of access to health care and information when compared to the nation at large. If you have a health-related topic you'd like us to cover, get in touch with us at wmmtfm@appalshop.org.
 Mountain Survivors: Sandra Dickerson
In the February edition of WMMT’s Mountain Survivors, host Sam Neace welcomes Sandra Dickerson to the program. Sandra, now an adult, was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 7, and she shares her story of unthinkable adversity in being forced to deal with leukemia at such a very young age and how she was able to defeat the disease. For more Mountain Survivors, check out the full streaming archive here. For more health programming from WMMT, check out our monthly Health Matters call-in show hosted by Dr. Van Breeding on the fourth Monday of every month to hear the show live, or check out the archive of past episodes here.
There will be a brand-new Health Matters tonight (Monday, Feb. 25th) at 6 p.m.. Dr. Breeding and special guests will discuss strokes this evening, touching on causes, effects, and possible treatments.
 HM 1-28-13 for web
In this edition of Health Matters, WMMT’s monthly health-related call-in show hosted by Dr. Van Breeding, the topic discussed is mental health in school-aged children, specifically kids right here in Letcher County. Dr. Breeding is joined in this program by Amber Maggard, a mental health worker in the Letcher Co. School System and with Kentucky River Community Care. Together, the two discuss a wide, wide range of mental health issues that occur in mountain schools, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Our hosts also examine some of the many causes of these issues, including family dynamics, troubles at home, bullying, internet issues, and many more. Dr. Breeding and Ms. Maggard also discuss treatment options for these issues as well.
Be sure to tune in for the next installment of Health Matters on February 25th at 6 p.m. when Dr. Breeding will welcome members of the UK Stroke team and the Whitesburg ARH emergency staff for an informative program on strokes, including risk factors and dealing with stroke-related issues. For the full Health Matters streaming archive, including the Mountain Survivors program and health reports from Mountain News & World Report, click here.
 Health Disparities in Kentucky
The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is a private charity that works to address the unmet health care needs of Kentucky residents. They do this, in part, by providing information about how healthy Kentuckians actually are, in hopes that the public and policymakers alike can use this information to make informed decisions. In this special report, we hear story on a recent study released by the Foundation, Place Matters: Health Disparities in the Commonwealth, that compares the health of different regions within Kentucky, and specifically what it says about our health here in its Appalachian counties.
To read the study yourself, click here; and if you’re curious about how healthy your county is, you can find a county-by-county breakdown of Kentucky health data here.
 Mike Craycraft Mountain Survivors: Mike Craycraft 12.10.12
In the December edition of WMMT’s Mountain Survivors, host Sam Neace welcomes Mike Craycraft to the program to share the story of his diagnosis, battle, and eventual triumph over testicular cancer. Among many other accomplishments, Craycraft went on to found the Testicular Cancer Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about testicular cancer, the most common form of cancer in men aged 15-35. In this program, Mike and Sam discuss all of this, as well as the unique and lasting friendships that can be forged through the experience of surviving cancer. To stream more episodes of the program, check out the Mountain Survivors archive.
 (L-R: "Big" Willard Hall, Angie Hall, "Little" Willard Hall Mountain Survivors 11.12: Willard Hall
In this edition of WMMT’s Mountain Survivors, host Sam Neace welcomes a special guest to the program, and one that as a WMMT connoisseur you may know well–Willard Hall. You may know “Big” Willard from his long-running Tuesday Morning program The Scuttlehole Gap Get-Together or from his work with Bluegrass Express and Bluegrass Express Live!, but you may not know that Willard is also a cancer survivor. Specifically, Big Willard persevered through male breast cancer, a form of cancer that many folks may not know about. In this program, Willard talks with Sam about his experience, his fight, and his eventual victory. For more installments of WMMT’s Mountain Survivors, check out the full streaming archive here.
 Mountain Survivors Maggie Duff 10-8-12
In this edition of Mountain Survivors, host Sam Neace interviews Maggie Duff, a survivor of breast cancer from Bonnyman, Ky. Maggie was 28 when she first discovered she may have cancer, and she shares how both the initial diagnosis and second opinion that her growth was non-cancerous were both wrong. It was only through her own persistence that her cancer was correctly diagnosed. Stream or download the audio above to hear Maggie tell in her own words her story of diagnosis, treatment, and survival.
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Mountain Survivors: Sandra Dickerson
