Episodes

It takes courage and compassion to be a police officer. The same is true for a caregiver. Just ask Clifton Huffmaster whose day job finds him working as a detective in the Special Victims Unit with the Concord Police Department in Concord, California. This takes courage. He’s also a graduate from the Theological Union at Berkeley College from which he holds a PhD. Maybe that’s where compassion comes from. When Clifton’s wife Lauren was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer his world turned ups...

For all caregivers, their lives are divided into two parts. Before diagnosis and After Diagnosis. This is particularly true for those who must manage one of the more insidious illnesses, Alzheimer’s Disease, where the changes taking place before the diagnosis and once the disease has become fully onset, are significant for the patient and care partner alike. Marty Schreiber is the former Governor of Wisconsin, author of, My Two Elaines. Learning, Coping and Surviving as an Alzheimer’s Caregiver....

For Josh Argall, life couldn’t get much better. He was a 25-year-old first-time father of, Devin, who quickly became the center of Josh’s universe. Josh’s world was rocked when he and Devin’s mother noticed that their three-year-old son was somewhat slow in reaching some of the physical milestones like crawling and walking that are typically associated with children his age. In the months following, Josh’s world changed dramatically as Devin went through numerous doctor visits and misdiagnoses. ...

When you have a child diagnosed with any illness, you can only hope your efforts don’t require a lifetime commitment. The hope is for a short-lived illness that comes with a diagnosis followed by a cure. For former MassBio President, Bob Coughlin, he has lived through the in utero cystic fibrosis diagnosis of his son, Bobby, the physical challenges of caring for a young CF patient, and the constant involvement as a CF patient advocate raising awareness and all-important research money. Also, a t...

At 17, Mason Smith was your typical teenager and living a life filled with school, sports, lots of hanging out with friends and more growing up. That all came to an abrupt stop when his mother was diagnosed with a fatal and ultra-rare neurodegenerative disease, adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids and pigmented glia (ALSP). This young man who was just sprouting his wings took a harsh turn into adulthood as part of his Mom’s primary care team when she began to exhibit behaviors t...

If you’re looking for a fair fight, don’t pick one with cancer. Odds are that cancer rarely loses and its adversary won’t have a puncher’s chance of bringing on defeat. Anyone confronted with caring for someone with a cancer diagnosis typically has no shortage of personal will, but not necessarily successful in finding a way to beat cancer. Just ask Miguel Barron who supported his wife in her two-year ordeal living with metastatic breast cancer, providing constant love, compassion, and dedicatio...

John Crowley’s life was on the upswing after completing his MBA studies at Harvard Business School and beginning a new position as an investment banker. Without any warning his seemingly good fortune changed dramatically with the diagnosis of two of his children who contracted a rare, inherited disorder for which there were few treatments. His new path directed him towards creating a start-up biotech company that would research this once fatal disease and discover new treatments for his kids. Jo...