GIST St. Louis Ofically Certified as 501C3

PRESS RELEASE


GIST St. Louis Officially Certified as 501c3


On November 7th GIST St. Louis changed its name to GIST Foundation of St. Louis after receiving 501c3 state certification from Robin Carnahan, Secretary of the State of Missouri. In so doing, the GIST Foundation of Saint Louis will continue its mission of GIST cancer advocacy, education, support and awareness to those in the greater St. Louis region affected by GIST on a “non-profit” operating basis.

The GIST Foundation of Saint Louis can now accept donations on a non-profit basis and will remit a receipt to all those donating to support our mission. 2009 programs are being planned and donations will be vital to the success for the foundations ability to execute them.

More information on 2009 programs will follow, until then please consider a 2008 year-end donation to the GIST Foundation of Saint Louis

Until our website is finished please mail your donations one of two ways:

1) Commerce Bank
c/o GIST Foundation of Saint Louis
10010 Watson Road
Saint Louis, MO 63126-1829

OR

2) GIST Foundation of Saint Louis
11817 Sunlind Drive
Saint Louis, MO 63127

Make checks payable to “GIST Foundation of Saint Louis”

Please allow 2 weeks for a donation receipt from the GIST Foundation of Saint Louis confirming your donation amount and date.


Thank you for your enormous generosity in allowing the GIST Foundation of Saint Louis to carry out its mission of love to all our fellow GIST’ers.

Happiest and most blessed Holidays to you and yours!

"Town Hall" Q&A - Pre-meeting Question Request

November 1st GIST GATHERING UPDATE


TOWN HALL PANEL DISCUSSION – Pre-meeting Question Request


After Ben Tan MD completes his keynote presentation the meeting it will turn into a “Town Hall” panel discussion with a lengthy opportunity for you to ask you’re most concerning questions directly to the assembled GIST Healthcare Professional Panel.

To insure that this portion of the meeting is a success could you forward us 1 to 3 of your most important questions so that we can make those questions available in list form at the meeting. (Your name, if provided, will be with-held from the question list for privacy and anonymity reasons)

Please focus your questions to the following areas:

· Diagnosis and Treatment
· Disease management
· GIST Surgery
· Drug Regimens, Clinical Trials and Research & Development

There will also be an open microphone for those who think of questions during the panel discussion.

PLEASE HAVE YOUR QUESTIONS TO US BY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24th, 2008


Email your questions to:
giststlouis@hotmail.com

GIST Gathering Flyer

Second GIST Gathering - November 1st, 2008

Patients and caregivers come and join us for our second St. Louis GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor) Gathering


Saturday, November 1st
8:00 AM – 1:00 PM


Siteman Cancer Center/Barnes-Jewish Hospital North
The Brown Room in the Steinberg Building
4950 Parkview Place
St. Louis, MO 63110


Join us for a day to meet others that are facing the same health concerns as you and your caregivers.

· Hear keynote speaker Benjamin Tan, MD present on medical treatments, clinical studies and future drugs.

· Extended Q&A with a physician, a nurse practitioner and a pharmacist to field disease management questions.


Please resister by: October 17th, 2008
To register, call (800)600-3606


Parking: For FREE CONFERENCE PARKING in the North Garage, bring in your parking ticket with you.

We will be providing food in the morning as well as a hot lunch! We do hope that you can make it and we certainly look forward to seeing you all again.

Please email me at campbellksoup@hotmail.com or call me at 314-518-5768 with any questions you may have.


Thank You,
Katie Campbell

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Our fist St. Louis meeting was a hit! We will keep all of you updated when we find out any more information for the next one or if we have any great information to send you. If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact me at giststlouis@hotmail.com or (314)518-5768.

Thank you,

Katie Campbell

More details!

This is just a friendly reminder that the first St. Louis GIST Meeting is on Saturday, April 26th and will run from 8:30am – 3:00pm. It will be held at:

Siteman Cancer Center/Barnes-Jewish Hospital North
Steinberg Building
The Brown Room
4950 Parkview Place
St. Louis, MO 63110

Parking is available in the North Garage. For FREE parking, bring in your parking ticket with you to be validated!

This is for patients and caregivers. All who are planning to attend need to register by calling (800)600-3606. We ask that you please register by April 18th so we may get an accurate count for the food we need to order. There are links on our blog, for directions, map and hotel information. If you have any questions please email me at campbellksoup@hotmail.com or call me at (314)518-5768. Here is a summary of the activities planned for the day:

For the speakers we will have:

~ GIST doctor will talk about current medical and surgical treatment, clinical studies and future drugs

~ Surgeon will speak to us about surgeries for GIST

~ Dietician will address any problems we have with eating after stomach surgery and help with side effects

~ Psychologist will speak about ways to help the patients and caregivers cope better with this disease and we will then have a break-out session where patients and caregivers will separate and discuss further.

There will be a 30 minute question and answer session after each speaker!

Please register by April 18th by calling

(800)600-3606!

We will also be providing bagels from St. Louis Bread Co. for breakfast & break and serving a hot lunch!

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you there!

Reminders & Outline

St. Louis GIST Gathering, April 26th 2008

Just a reminder to register by calling:

(800)600-3606

Please have your registration in by April 18th so we may get an accurate head count for the food we have arranged.

Parking will be available in the North Garage. Please bring your parking ticket with you to have it validated for free parking.



Here is an outline of what to expect at the GIST Gathering:

8:00 am - 8:30 am
Registration and Breakfast

8:30 am - 8:45 am
Welcome

8:45 am - 9:45 am
GIST doctor will speak about current medical and surgical treatment, clinical studies and future drugs

9:45 am - 10:00 am
Break

10:00 am - 11:00 am
Surgeon will speak to us about surgeries for GIST

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Dietician will address the eating problems we face after stomach surgery and will help with issues caused by side effects

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Lunch

1:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Psychologist will speak about ways to help the patients and caregivers cope better with this disease

1:30 pm - 2:15 pm
Break Out Session, caregivers and patients will separate to discuss further

2:15 pm - 2:30 pm
Break

2:30 pm - 2:50 pm
Resources - Next Steps

2:50 pm - 3:00 pm
Evaluation and Adjournment

Helpful Links

We have added some helpful links on the left for those of you that are traveling here for the April 26th gathering here in St. Louis. When you are booking your hotel make sure that you let them know that you are getting the medical rate for Barnes/Siteman Cancer Center. The gathering will take place on Saturday, April 26th from 8:30AM - 3:00PM. Please call the registration number, (800)600-3606, so they may get an accurate count of how many people will be attending. Please email me if you have any further questions at campbellksoup@hotmail.com

Please call:

Registration Number

(800)600-3606

The Date is Set!

I am finally happy to announce that the Midwest/St. Louis GIST gathering will be held on April 26th at the Siteman Cancer Center. There is a hotel (Parkway Hotel) that is attached to the hospital and I will be getting more information regarding the rate (it will be a special hospital rate) for those interested. The Siteman Cancer Center will also be providing the food so they will be setting up a registration hotline for those who are attending so they can get a more accurate head count. As far as what will be going on that day: the day might start off at around 9AM, speakers include: Dr. Joel Picus from Siteman Cancer Center speaking about medical updates and clinical research, a nutritionist and a psychologist. More importantly though, a chance for all of us to meet each other. We meet with the Siteman Cancer Center next on February 6th, so I will update the blog and support groups with more detailed information as soon as it is available. Please email me at campbellksoup@hotmail.com if you have any other additional questions.

A special thanks to Ally Klein and Dennis Luber (also GIST survivors) for their hard work and determination to get this thing rolling.

Thank You,
Katie Campbell

First GIST St. Louis Get Together

We are excited to let you know that we are in the process of getting our first offical GIST get together in April 2008 at the Siteman Cencer Center here in St. Louis. As soon as we have the exact date set we will post all available information.