Documentary raises cancer vaccine awareness . . .
A Hamilton County resident and Noblesville High School graduate, Kristen Forbes, died of a preventable form of cervical cancer in June 2008. Her family has since formed the Kristen Forbes EVE Foundation to raise awareness of a vaccine that can prevent cervical cancer and help ensure other families do not have to endure this kind of loss.
The Indiana Immunization Coalition will show the movie Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic from 6 to 8 p.m. on April 25 at Noblesville High School Auditorium, 18111 Cumberland Road. (Graphic provided)
Toward that goal, the Hamilton County Health Department, in partnership with the Indiana Immunization Coalition will show the movie “Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic” from 6 to 8 p.m. on April 25 at the Noblesville High School Auditorium, 18111 Cumberland Road.
“Our daughter Kristen Forbes is one of the five women in the documentary,” Brenda Forbes told The Reporter. “We lost our daughter Kristen to HPV Cervical Cancer June 1, 2008, at the age of 23.”
Kristen was a Noblesville High School graduate in the class of 2003 and had just graduated from IU Kelley School of Business one month before her Stage 3C diagnosis.
“Brenda Forbes is a remarkable woman,” Janice A. VanMetre, Hamilton County Health Department’s director of nursing told The Reporter. “She’s been through so much – I can’t even imagine being in her shoes. After Kristen died her parents started the EVE Foundation in honor of Kristen, hoping no other woman would have to go through this or if they did they would have support to get through it.”
VanMetre
When asked about the Kristen Forbes EVE Foundation, Brenda Forbes told The Reporter, “EVE stands for Educate and screen, Vaccinate and Eradicate. Our purpose is to educate the public on HPV, cancers that HPV causes and get our youth vaccinated. The documentary does a wonderful job on educating and giving real stories of five women. The producer is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, Frederic Lumiere.”
The Hamilton County Health Department is partnering with the Indiana Immunization Coalition, who bought the rights to the documentary and are showing it throughout Indiana for free.
“Kirk [Brenda’s husband and Kristen’s father] and I have traveled the state to be on panels following the documentary screenings,” Forbes said. “Through the Indiana Immunization Coalition and IU Medical, it is approved for continuing education for doctors, PA’s, pharmacists, pharmacy techs and nurses.”
VanMetre told The Reporter the Health Department offers the HPV vaccine to both girls and boys starting at age 11.
“It has been our passion to educate parents about how important it is for their children to be vaccinated,” VanMetre said. “This is one of the few illnesses in which there is a vaccine that can prevent cancer.”
According to the National Cancer Institute, virtually all cases of cervical cancer are caused by human papillomaviruses (HPVs), and just two HPV types, 16 and 18, are responsible for about 70 percent of all cases.
“It is so important to use to show this film here in Hamilton County because it’s about someone who had it and passed away,” VanMetre said. “That’s a big reason we want to have it in Hamilton County and it’s very nice that it will happen at Noblesville High School where Kristen went to school.”
The Forbes and the EVE Foundation have won several awards from the Coalition for their help in promoting HPV awareness, including the Governor and Cheri Daniels Healthy School Award and the Colts/Anthem Angel Award. The Indiana Immunization Coalition has also established a Kristen Forbes Teen Award.
The HPV vaccine can be given from ages 11 through 26. If you would like your children to be vaccinated, call the Hamilton County Health Department at (317) 776-8500 for details.