Generations of Seawolves Connect About Community and Healthcare on WUSB

What began as a handful of students planning a Relay for Lifetwo decades ago has grown into a campus-wide tradition of cardiac and cancer awareness at Stony Brook University.

That evolution came full circle on WUSB 90.1/107.3 FM's Health Matters when Ryan Heslin, MD, one of the students behind Stony Brook's inaugural Relay for Life, returned to campus as an attending cardiologist. He joined senior biology major and American Cancer Society (ACS) at Stony Brook President Cameron Takmil for a live conversation with host Kate Valerio about heart health and what it means to be a Seawolf for life.

The on-air discussion brought together generations of Stony Brook experience: Valerio, a longtime health educator and blood drive advocate; Heslin, now a clinical assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology and The Heart Institute at Stony Brook University Hospital; and Takmil, an undergraduate researcher and student leader reviving Relay for Life on campus after the pandemic caused it to pause.

Heslin's story is closely tied to Stony Brook. He attended the university in 2010 as a freshman and completed medical school, residency and fellowships before becoming an attending physician.

"In my 15-plus years at Stony Brook, I've seen a lot of people come and go, but I've also seen a lot of people stick around because they love this place so much," he said.

Heslin splits his time between Stony Brook University Hospital, Advanced Clinical Specialty locations and the Northport VA Hospital. He also works in education, where he co-authored "ECG Companion for Beginning Experts" and designed an ECG education series that is now used in the internal medicine residency curriculum.

Heslin said that the people, institutions, outreach and relationships that he was able to foster at Stony Brook were the deciding factors for him staying.

"I would liken it kind of to falling in love," he said. "There was no Kismet moment… it was really a summation of all these other wonderful, tinier moments that came together and made me realize that this is the place that I needed to be."

Those "tinier moments" included his own student leadership that continues to make a difference on campus.

"Relay for Life really started out as maybe a group of half a dozen to maybe a dozen people," he said. "It's pretty amazing to see, after maybe 15 years or so, how things have evolved over time."

Takmil, who is on the premed track and leads efforts to support patients through the pediatric and adult oncology clinics, shared his own experience in continuing that legacy. For him, Relay for Life is also a way to rebuild community.

"Our goal is $5,000, and we've already raised $550 before the event," Takmil said about this spring's relay, scheduled for April 25 at the Student Activities Center. "We've started to make this event something that's tangible, and hopefully something that we can turn into tradition again at Stony Brook."

Takmil attributed his executive board and campus partners with helping turn that idea into action, including ACS leaders, Stony Brook Cancer Center staff and campus advisors.

Both Heslin and Takmil highlighted the "magic" of Stony Brook that keeps people connected.

"It's connected in every way," Takmil said. "Everyone kind of knows each other, in a way, it's a big family, and I think that is really helpful in terms of the initiatives that we want to run."

That sense of connection is what he thinks turns campus clubs into something much larger.

"I think Stony Brook has just been a land of opportunity," he said. "You find that you want to stay in the rooms that you find yourself in here. People… want to see your impact be made, and want to see you continue to realize your full potential."

Valerio, who has spent decades dedicated to health education and organizing blood drives on campus, agreed, pointing to current and former students who built programs like Music and Medicineand the Play it Forward Project.

While the conversation ranged from student life to media literacy, Heslin's primary message was simple: heart disease is often preventable if people act early.

"What I tell my patients is that no man or woman is as old as their coronary arteries are," he said. "Or if you want to be even more plucky about it, you could say when your heart stops, you stop."

Heslin recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night and about 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity exercise as a baseline, while warning students about diets high in processed foods and refined carbohydrates.

Most of all, he urged students not to wait.

"It's always easier to prevent anything, which is why preventative care is such an important aspect of everyone's life, whether they realize it or not," Heslin said. "The best time to do those kinds of things is yesterday. The second-best time is right now."

For listeners seeking more information, Heslin pointed to resources like the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology websites for patient-friendly guides on blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and stroke.

As the conversation came to a close, Valerio asked both guests to look toward the future.

For Takmil, the future includes medical school, continued research and holding himself to the same level of care that he saw when his own mother faced kidney failure.

"Seeing that quality of a doctor really touched me," he said of the physicians who still write handwritten letters to his mother. "It was something that I want to have that same impact on other people's lives."

For Heslin, the future is continuing to train the next generation of Seawolf physicians and residents who may follow a path very similar to his.

"I still learn every day," he said. "My training is not really over yet, even as an attending physician."

-Lily Miller