Time: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Location: UC Davis Cancer Center
4501 X St., Sacramento
(Click here to map directions)
This special event is free and open to the public
Please RSVP to Patti Robinson
(916) 734-0823 or e-mail
(Seating is limited to the first 150 guests)
AMC community relations director Nancy Stewart, Dr. Virginia Borges, AMC executive director Alice Norton and Jonna Tamases at the Women's Event in June 2010.
The First Annual Women’s Event on June 9, 2010 raised $14,000 and generated challenge grants for UCCC,s Young Women’s Breast Cancer Translational Research Program. AMC supporters Walter and Laura Dear challenged guests to match their personal donation of $10,000, and donors are rising to the challenge. The event featured Jonna Tamases’s one-woman play, “Jonna’s Body, Please Hold,” which chronicles her life as a three-time cancer survivor. Her funny, touching performance was well received.
The Auckland Methodist Central Parish, Pilgrim Productions, CityLife Hotel Auckland and BCS joined together to present a wonderful evening of entertainment with visiting Los Angeles-based actress Jonna Tamases and her award-winning one-woman show “Jonna’s Body, Please Hold!” 
On Friday 22 May, 90 people gathered at the Theatre Pitt to enjoy the show and to raise money for BCS. Jonna (pictured) performed in Auckland courtesy of the aforementioned sponsors and helped raise over $1,000 for BCS.
“Jonna’s Body, Please Hold” offers an original, often hilarious but poignant, tender look into Ms Tamases’ own battle with cancer, a performance that uplifts, inspires and challenges despair with Jonna’s own contagious zest for life.
Jonna gives us a glimpse into the hectic day to day world of her body, complete with Baby Toe (who is squeezed into a too-tight shoe), Upper Back who threatens to go on strike if she doesn’t rest up a little and those irrepressible twins Uta and Ula, breasts begging to be released from the torment of a restricting bra. A busy receptionist sits at a switchboard, fielding calls from these irate tenants, dishing out as much comfort and advice as she can while her boss, Ms Jonna, carries on with life, somewhat oblivious and neglectful of the goings-on inside her body … that is until two unwanted tenants move in – the charming French madame Venice and the tough ‘old goat’ Walter – two cancerous personalities determined to set up housekeeping and wreak their havoc.
Jonna performs with an engaging honesty, involving the audience not only in the drama of the situation unfolding within her body but also establishing a chatty rapport as she speaks directly about her life and experiences.
With courage, honesty, and humor Jonna takes us inside her battle with cancer. We are with her every step of the way as she is diagnosed, more than once, endures tests, scans, biopsies and multiple rounds of chemotherapy and then we are there as her ravaged body begins to recover from the trauma of the disease. The body parts report in as they fight the battle and struggle to recover and restore her to health. Jonna finds that her body – its strength and will to survive – is her greatest ally and her most precious asset.
Jonna’s performance moved, inspired and delighted the audience – a truly talented actress with a brave, courageous and moving story to tell.
For more information about Jonna, visit her play website, Jonnas’ Body. Click here to view the Auckland performance poster.
BCS wishes to thank the Auckland Methodist Central Parish, Pilgrim Productions and CityLife Hotel Auckland for their kind support of this event.
Jonna will be performing Jonna’s Body, Please Hold as the keynote speaker at the Gerad Center for Cancer Treatment in Lima, Ohio on November 4th, 2010.
Jonna Tamases, a three-time cancer survivor and former circus clown, kept an overflow audience of more than 250 cancer survivors, friends and family laughing with her award-winning one-woman comedy during a recent survivorship event on campus.
Jonna Tamases, keynote speaker and cancer survivor, performed the role of a sassy receptionist who takes calls from irate body parts, helping them to unite to fend off a duo of deadly invaders. Photo credit: Dean Forbes
Tamases was the keynote speaker for Moving Beyond Cancer to Wellness, presented June 26 by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Survivorship Program. Tamases’ show, “Jonna’s Body, Please Hold,” centered on a sassy receptionist who takes calls from irate body parts, helping them to unite to fend off a duo of deadly invaders.
Held in Pelton Auditorium and other locations around the Center, Moving Beyond Cancer to Wellness marked the fourth annual general-education seminar of the Survivorship Program, made possible by a grant from LIVESTRONG.
Attendees had their choice of three breakout sessions focused on survivorship topics including cognitive function/memory, lymphedema, fatigue and energy, impact on family and caregivers, and insurance and employment issues. Among the speakers were Dr. Scott Baker, Survivorship Program director, and Dr. Karen Syrjala, program co-director.
With help from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a group of survivors was teleconferenced into the event from Survivorship Program affiliate Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. The event and teleconference concluded in Pelton with a panel of survivors; each outlined his or her personal journey with the disease and took part in discussion and question-and-answer sessions.
Jonna will be performing Jonna’s Body, Please Hold on Sunday, November 7th in Madison, Wisconsin. More details coming soon.
Jonna’s Body Movie (Home Use Only) 
