Look up. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the sky is blue. How beautiful a world it is! How do you enjoy your life in such a wonderful world? The answer is keeping yourself healthy. If you are healthy, you can do many things that you want to do. You can be a volunteer to help those people that need your help. You also can travel around the world. How to keep yourself healthy? The following are some recommendations:

• First, eat healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, and food rich in high fiber. Avoid eating foods with high fat, cholesterol, and salt. Besides, you also have to control your body weight within a normal range.
• Second, make exercise a habit. Choose some exercise that is fit for you and set a regular time to do it. Also, over-exercise and inappropriate exercise are not good for your health.
• Third, avoid smoking and second-hand smoking to protect yourself from being the candidate of cancer.
• Fourth, protect yourself at work. Find out what chemicals are hazardous in your work place. Avoid contact with and inhaling these agents. Do any protection procedure if you have contact with them.
• Fifth, find ways to deal with stress. You should have some time to relax every day and think about the good things in your life.
• Sixth, have a regular medical checkup to detect your disease in the early stages.

All people should have checkups to prevent cancer and detect early.

A good lifestyle is giving to us good health. We need to change our lifestyle. We must eat healthy food, like vegetables, fruits, and natural foods. A good natural environment will give us good spaces to live. Always thinking about happiness will give us feelings of comfort. The most important thing is to quit smoking.

Several years ago, I lived in Korea, and my neighbor’s wife died of lung cancer. She never smoked, and she was very healthy. Unfortunately, her husband was a very terrible smoker. One day, she found she had lung cancer. She had surgery two times, but she died during the surgery. She hadn’t gone for a checkup to examine for cancer before she got sick.

Twenty years ago, my father-in-law died of lung cancer. He was a smoker. He had very serious pain every day, and his body looked like a skeleton. He took morphine for the pain. All his hair was gone because he had chemotherapy.

I have another example. Forty years ago, my mother-in-law had cervical cancer. Fortunately, she had early detection. Now, she is 79, and she has very good health. She visits this country every year alone. She is still stronger than any other person the same age.

Cancer is a very serious disease. We need to have knowledge about cancer. Normal body cells keep growing, but when we reach about age 18, most body cells stop growing. Abnormal cells are cells that grow and take over healthy cells. Abnormal cells are sometimes harmful (malignant); sometimes they are harmless (benign). Benign cells stop growing after a while. Malignant cells may grow slowly or fast and are cancer.

Everybody needs to test for cancer. Women need to do breast self-exams and go to the doctor for clinical breast exams, mammograms, and PAP tests. Nobody knows who could be having cancer in the future. You may say, "I don’t have a family history of cancer, and I have a healthy diet, I exercise, and I don’t smoke, so I don’t need to worry." But who knows that?

Every week during the winter term, I waited for Tuesday and Wednesday night classes at Jefferson School. We learned about good health in general, and about cervical and breast cancer. I am very thankful for my good teacher, Leslie, and I met very kind classmates. This class is very interesting for me. Sometimes in the past I have visited the doctor, but I could not understand the medical words. Therefore, I wanted to learn medical names. I wanted to be able to understand the doctor. This class helped me very much. Thank you, teacher and my friends.

I think many people in my town don’t know about cancer screening, so it is important to learn about it. In my town, when we know someone has cancer, the person dies because it is too late to cure them. We go to the doctor only when we feel sick. Very few people check for cancer or have checkups every year because they don’t know how screening can help provide protection and early detection. Now I can tell and teach my family and friends about the importance of breast and cervical cancer early detection and screening. This is what I learned about screening for breast and cervical cancer:

Breast Cancer Screening:

• Breast Self Exam (BSE): you can check yourself once a month after your period or check on the same day every month.
• Clinical Breast Exam (CBE): while you lie on the examining table, your health care provider carefully feels each breast for lumps. Women ages 20-39 should be tested every 1-3 years, and women ages 40 and over, every year.
• Mammogram: an X-Ray is taken of both your breasts. A mammogram can find lumps that are too small to feel. Women ages 40 and over should be tested every 1-2 years.

• Pap Test: It looks for abnormal cells on the cervix. Women ages 18 and over, or women under 18 who have had sex should be tested.

I Changed My Life For Health Reasons
My life has been very healthy. But in the last days, I felt I needed to change my lifestyle because I have too much stress. So I am beginning to do exercises. It was hard at first because I don’t like to do exercises. But now I feel better. And also, I don’t like to drink too much water, but now I need to drink water to be healthy.

The Word "Cancer"
When I heard the word "cancer", I felt so scared because everybody knows cancer is a very serious sickness. Thank God nobody in my family ever had cancer. But I know some people who got cancer, and everybody died. Some of them didn’t die immediately, but the suffering and pain not only for the one who was sick but for the whole family was terrible.

Charlottesville Free Clinic: (804) 296-5525
Thomas Jefferson Health District Health Department: (804) 972-6237
Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge: (804)296-2330
University of Virginia Medical Services: Call (804)924-3627 (ask for Gynecology Clinic or Family Practice Clinic for Pap Test, pelvic exam, and breast exam); Call 924-5194 (Primary Care Center) or 243-4535 (Northridge) for mammogram.

But I had an opportunity to learn about health in ESL class. I think I want to keep healthy in America. The first reason is I knew it was possible to have cancer. So I understood I needed to get a checkup every year, and I learned about breast self-examination. Second, my fear of the difficulty of communication in English decreased because I was able to learn easily about medical words and medical examinations. And the video was easy for us. Third, I learned about medical services in Charlottesville.

I think it is very important for us to study this. I want to enjoy learning English and staying healthy in American life.

1. Eat healthy food and have a lower risk of cancer.
2. Do exercise in your life. Don’t smoke.
3. Know your family medical history.
4. Get medical checkups.

In the first case, the young woman died because the cervical cancer was not detected early enough. She was a healthy woman who wasn’t ever absent in her school days. She got a prize for health. She smoked and drank alcohol every day. She got a Pap test when she felt a heavy pain in her uterus. But it was too late. She finished her life when she was 36 years old. The death came suddenly. The second woman is still alive today after she had breast cancer surgery in 1993. Her mother died of breast cancer, so she knew she had a risk factor. Every day she took a shower, then she used to have breast self-examination in front of the mirror. Her finger felt a tiny lump in her breast. She went to the hospital the next morning. She got a mammogram. After two weeks, she got a lumpectomy with one month of radiation therapy. She detected breast cancer in the early stage. Now she enjoys playing tennis and her life.

In conclusion, every woman should practice breast self-examinations and get regular medical checkups once a year. Also, after 18 years old, every woman should have a Pap test to check for cervical cancer. Early detection is important.

Why do we need to have regular checkups? And what checkups should we do?

First, when we get cancer, we can’t usually feel any symptoms. If we can feel any signs of sickness, it can be fatal. Only regular checkups can find cancer in its early stages.

Second, when we find a lump or other sign without an exact test, we can’t know if it’s cancer or not. If could be benign or malignant. We should do exact checkups in the hospital.

Third, if cancer is found early by regular checkups, cancer will be easier to treat and may be able to be cured.

Fourth, for breast cancer, we should do a breast self-exam every month. And we should do a mammogram once a year (over 40 years old).

Fifth, for cervical cancer, we should do a Pap Test once a year (over 18 years old).

In conclusion, the best way to overcome cancer is to have regular checkups. Do not be afraid to go to the hospital for your healthy life.

The first medical tests for checkup are breast cancer screening tests for women. These are clinical breast exam and mammogram. Women ages 20 and older should have clinical breast exam and women ages 40 and older should have a mammogram

The second medical test for checkup is cervical cancer screening for women, which is called a Pap Test. Women ages 18 and over, or under 18 who have had sex, should have a Pap Test.

The third medical tests are prostate and testicular cancer screening tests for men. Men ages 50 and over should have prostate cancer screening. Men 21 and over should have testicular cancer screening as well.

The last medical tests are for skin cancer screening and colorectal cancer screening for women and men. Men and women ages 20 and over should have skin cancer screening. Men and women ages 50 and over should be tested for colorectal cancer, which is called a colorectal cancer test screening.

Finally, all these medical tests help us stay healthy. And then we can keep ourselves healthy and find signs of cancer earlier.

There are several important activities I do in order to stay healthy. First, nutrition. I like good food, natural foods, skim milk, grains. I like doing this activity because this kind of eating makes me healthy. Second, physical body. Good life, games, sports, walking in the park. These activities help me feel good. In addition, behavior. Not smoking, enough sleep, getting a checkup with the doctor. These activities are important for my health because I need to prevent disease. On account of these activities, my family has healthy habits.

In conclusion, all these activities help me to enjoy health and happiness in my life. When I am healthy, I help my family be healthy and happy, and help them have good habits.

There are several important activities I do in order to stay healthy. First, I eat healthy food. I like doing this activity because I like to eat vegetables, fruits, and natural foods. Second I make food that is easy to cook, like salads. This activity helps me have fresh condition. In addition, I drink lots of water. This activity is important for my health because it does my body good.

In conclusion, all these activities keep my blood pressure stable; my blood pressure is normal. And these activities make me healthy.

There are several important activities I do in order to stay healthy. First, nutrition. I eat good food. I like doing this activity because I like vegetables and fruits. Second, exercise and sports. These activities help me make my body strong and have good health. In addition, feelings and emotions. This activity is important for my health because of stress. When I work hard or am busy, I think good things, smile, and laugh to make myself happy. On account of all these activities, if you have good health, you have good life, and everything is good for you.

In conclusion, I think good health makes good food, good natural environment, family, physical body, habits, checkups, heredity, and the best for me is lifestyle. Therefore, I must make for our children the best lifestyle.

1. Check for lumps or changes that might be signs.
2. Get a mammogram.
3. Women over 20 should get an exam every 1-3 years; women over 40, every year.

What is a Pap Test? It is a test to check if you have cervical cancer. How do they do it? You lie on the examining table, and your doctor uses a small brush to take a sample of cells from your cervix. The cells are looked at in a lab. Who should be tested? Women ages 18 and over; and women under 18 who have had sex. How often? Every 1-3 years.

I learned more when we went on a field trip to the University of Virginia Health Center at Northridge. Mary Bickers was our guide that day. She taught us three things:

1. She showed us how to give yourself a breast exam.
2. She showed us the new machine that they have now for breast exams.
3. She told us to get your family to take an exam 5 years earlier if you have a family member that has had breast cancer.

I really enjoyed taking this class, and it has made me open my eyes about cancer. What you can do and how to take care of it. I also want to thank Ms. Wood for taking the time out to teach us this class. I know it was kind of hard for her to come in sometimes, especially what she had to go through at the time. I hope that you continue to have and teach these classes because there are a lot of women and girls that need to know this information. Thank you.

Staying healthy: there are several important activities I do in order to stay healthy. First, I try to eat right and diet because I don’t want to get overweight. I like doing this activity because it’s easy, and I like to cook food. The second is exercise, especially walking. This activity helps me because when I am walking, I can see the scenery and work my leg muscles because sometimes they hurt. In addition, vitamins give you energy and help your bones stay strong. This activity is important because it’s good for my body.

Conclusion: On account of all these activities, I am doing good, and my body is still going strong.

Conclusion: It’s all good for the body and mind and working to earn money to keep in your pocket.

During the winter term of 2001, the Charlottesville Adult Education program carried out a pilot project developed by World Education in cooperation with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This project was called Health Education for Adult Literacy -- Breast and Cervical Cancer (HEAL-BCC).

One class of Families Learning Together and two classes in English as a Second Language participated. The students trained to become leaders for other in their communities by studying

1. preventative health maintenance;
2. definitions and known causes of breast and cervical cancer;
3. recommended schedules for regular screenings and checkups; and
4. the benefits of early detection.