Skater offers gold-medal cancer help

Olympian news services

Originally published Monday, March 4, 2002

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Olympic figure skating gold medalist Scott Hamilton was honored for his work in promoting cancer awareness and survival.

The 1984 gold medalist was recognized Saturday by the Roswell Park Cancer Institute with the Gilda Radner Courage Award, named for the "Saturday Night Live" comedian who died of ovarian cancer in 1989.

"I'm trying to be a visible ... just to let people know that cancer is treatable. Cancer is curable," said the 43-year-old Hamilton, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1997.

Hamilton ran with the Olympic torch at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City with fellow gold-medal winner and cancer survivor Peggy Fleming. He underwent three months of chemotherapy and major surgery for the tumor "twice the size of a grapefruit" in his abdomen.

"Chemotherapy is medicine. It's not this terrible, awful thing that's worse than dying. I did it, and I was back on the ice five months after I was done," he said.

Hamilton participates in a mentoring program pairing survivors and patients at the Taussig Cancer Center in Cleveland, where he received his treatment.

LOS ANGELES -- Comic actor Tom Green isn't laughing much these days as he tries to get over his breakup with estranged wife Drew Barrymore.

The two no longer are speaking, Green told the syndicated TV show "Inside Edition."

"It's hard," Green said in an interview at Wednesday's Grammy Awards. "You try to make something work and you put your heart into it ... and it just doesn't work."

In December, Green filed a petition to divorce Barrymore, star of "Riding in Cars With Boys," citing irreconcilable differences. The couple were married for less than six months.

"With a lot of work, I'll be happy again," Green said. "I can feel the sunshine sort of coming through the clouds slowly."

Green starred in and directed the movie "Freddy Got Fingered," which received eight nominations, including worst picture, in the movie-spoof Razzie Awards.

FERRIDAY, La. -- Most of the town showed up to see Jerry Lee Lewis reunited with his famous cousins for their induction into the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame. But Lewis stayed away because he didn't like the twin-engine plane sent to pick him up.

Lewis was scheduled to be on stage Saturday with cousins Jimmy Swaggart and Mickey Gilley. He was promised a jet plane for the event but would not ride on the twin-engine plane sent to pick them up because he had never ridden on that type of plane before, said his wife, Kerrie Lewis.

"We had a plane, but it wasn't suitable. It's suitable enough for the governor, but it wasn't for Jerry Lee Lewis," said Secretary of State Fox McKeithen.

McKeithen said the plane sent to get Lewis in Memphis, Tenn., was a jet prop plane donated for use.

Swaggart, 66, a piano playing preacher, drove into town with others from his church in Baton Rouge, while Gilley, 65, a honky tonk crooner, flew his own plane from home in Pasadena, Tex.

Gilley entertained the thousands of fans by singing Lewis' hit "Great Balls of Fire."

Scott Hamilton was honored Saturday for his work in promoting cancer awareness and survival. Hamilton won the Olympic gold medal for figure skating in 1984.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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