The reason for Katie Couric’s very public push around colon cancer was once an extremely private one; as is now well known, her husband, Jay Monahan, died in late January 1998 at age 42, a casualty of colon cancer that went undetected until it had reached Stage IV. Since then, Couric has cofounded the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, an arm of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, which has recruited the likes of Diane Keaton, Vanessa Williams, and Heidi Klum as PSA poster girls. Couric also cofounded the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health in 2004 together with Dr. Mark Pochapin. She will be able to further spread the word with the help of her new daytime talk show—called simply Katie—which debuted in national syndication this past September. Read on for highlights from Prevention’s exclusive interview with Katie Couric, and read the full article in our April 2012 issue. On her cancer advocacy work:“I don’t mean to sound morbid, but I’m hoping that ‘cancer advocate’ will be the first line of my obituary. It’s definitely what I’m proudest of. I think journalism serves people—I do. But on the other hand, the idea that I’ve actually saved a few lives along the way through advocacy is incredibly gratifying to me.” On coping with her husband’s illness: “I never acknowledged that I had given up hope. Sometimes I wish I had spoken with him about what we knew was inevitable. I really never had an opportunity to say good-bye to Jay, because I thought that accepting the fact that he was going to die—whether it was too painful or…I don’t know. I wish I had been more honest. I was trying to protect him. Maybe I was trying to protect me. But for whatever reason, we never really acknowledged what we both knew to be true: that he was going to die. It was left unspoken, and as a result, a lot of things weren’t said that I wish had been.” The workouts that make her sweat: “I do Spinning and Pilates in the morning, between 8:30 and 10, maybe 4 or 5 times a week. I used to play tennis once a week, but I kept missing my class. I want to get more into yoga this year. I think it’s important for someone my age to stay flexible. And it’s a great stress reducer. I’ve tried hot yoga, but it’s pretty tough for me. I usually feel like I’m going to pass out.” The lessons she hopes to teach her girls (Ellie, a junior at Yale, and Carrie, in 10th grade):“I try to set a good example in terms of dealing with failure or setbacks. I think one of the problems is a lot of parents—myself included—don’t allow their kids to fail. Overparenting does a disservice, because we’re not allowing kids to develop coping skills when they don’t get perfect grades or win school elections. It’s something that I think about.” How Katie, her new show is going:“One of the things I’m most excited about is being able to help people navigate or understand medical information or certain illnesses better. If I can accomplish that, it’d be great. I’ve gone through a lot of medical situations, through Jay and my sister [Emily, who died in 2001 from pancreatic cancer], and my dad had Parkinson’s. So I’m sort of the family advocate—I try to learn all I can to be helpful to my family members.” [header=Next Page: A Legacy of Love] A Legacy of LoveAfter her husband, Jay Monahan, died in January 1998 from colon cancer, Katie Couric felt driven to help other families navigate the often confusing and frightening process of choosing treatment options. So in true Couric fashion, she got galvanized and in 2004, together with her husband’s doctor, Mark Bennett Pochapin, MD, founded the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestional Health at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center (monahancenter.org), a clinic focusing on prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and support for people suffering from a gastrointestinal cancer. But the Monahan Center—which coordinates a wide range of services—including gastroenterology, surgery, oncology, radiology, pathology, pain management, nutrition, genetic counseling, social work, and health education—doesn’t have the feel of a typical hospital. “It’s for patients and their loved ones,” explains Dr. Pochapin, the Center’s Founding Director. The focus is never strictly on disease. Even the décor, which highlights benchmarks in Monahan’s life, such as time with family and friends, has a personal feel. “It shows the importance of what a human life is all about,” Dr. Pochapin says, “that there’s nothing more important than relationships.” And using an integrated care model, they ensure that each person’s experience continues beyond treatment. “We give a complete picture with the patient in the middle of care,” Dr. Pochapin says.
