BANGOR – A free diabetes support group, sponsored by St. Joseph Healthcare, will feature guest speaker Dr. Roy Corbin at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3. Corbin, the chief of staff of podiatry at St. Joseph Hospital, will discuss the prevention of diabetic foot complications.

The support group meets 1-2 p.m. the first Thursday of each month in the Willette Conference Center, Building 2, St. Joseph Healthcare Park. The group is open to individuals with diabetes and their family members. For more information, call 262-1826.

BANGOR – Area businesses, organizations, schools and religious groups still have time to enter a team in the American Heart Association’s annual American Heart Walk. The walk is set for 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Bangor Auditorium. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.

A special Red Cap Survivors breakfast begins at 8 a.m. Registered walkers who are survivors of heart attack, cardiac arrest, heart surgery or stroke will receive free tickets. The cost for the breakfast is $10, $5 children under age 12. Preregistration is required. For more information or to receive a team or friends-and-family team packet or walker collection envelope by mail, call (800) 937-0944 or 848-2888.

Collection envelopes are available at Subway, a national sponsor of the walk.

BANGOR – Dr. Jonathan Wood, who has returned to the area after several years at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Healthcare Children’s Medical Center in Worcester, Mass., has been named medical director of the Eastern Maine Medical Center’s pediatric intensive care unit.

BANGOR – Margaret Cox, Rhonda Pierson and Sandra Saloutis started one-year internships Aug. 19 at Eastern Maine Medical Center. The University of Maine students will do a 10-month clinical rotation through all sections of Affiliated Laboratory Inc.

BANGOR – Ron Chase of Bangor has been selected by the Maine Pharmacists Association as the 2002 winner of the Bowl of Hygeia Award for outstanding community service.

A Wyeth Pharmaceuticals representative presented the award to Chase at the annual conference Sept. 14.

In addition to his job as pharmacist at Miller Drug, Chase is a member of the Bangor Community Health and Counseling Hospice, and a board member of the NFI group home. He also coaches softball.

Chase’s professional affiliations include membership in the Maine Pharmacy Association, where he recently served as chairman, and membership in the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.

Chase and his wife, Debbie, have two children.

Legs that ache or burn, numbness, tingling or weakness are symptoms of peripheral vascular disease. For 8 million Americans simple activities such as walking, climbing stairs, or dancing are difficult and painful.

PVD, a common and potentially fatal disease, is caused by blocked blood flow in the leg arteries. The disease affects one in 20 men and women over age 50, people suffering from diabetes, smokers, and people with high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels.

Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor will hold a free PVD screening program 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, in the Penobscot Room of The Acadia Hospital.

Participants will be asked to fill out a questionnaire to help determine their risk of PVD. Blood pressures are taken in the arms and ankles. If there are concerns, examiners will recommend a follow-up visit with the patient’s doctor. To register, call 973-8193.

BANGOR – The 4th annual Cut for the Cure to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s Maine affiliate will be held 11 a.m-4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27, at Attitudes Hair Salon on Hammond Street.

For more information, call 262-7233.