I hate cancer. I think it's stupid, mean and useless. I mean what do you gain from having cancer? Headaches, stress and hair loss. It's not fun! I know there are people out there who say cancer is a blessing. I am not one of them.I asked our facebook fans how many of them have been affected by this disease. Though I wasn't surprised by the number of responses, it still made me take pause.
Hare are a few of the responses we got:
"I lost my Mother in law April 15.2010 to Breast Cancer .. My Mom also had Bladder cancer and it's been in remission for 6 years now..."
"lost my mum nearly a year ago to pancreatic cancer"
"i lost my mom to lung cancer"
"I lost my dad 4 years ago at age 62 to kidney cancer that spread to his brain"
"I lost two aunts one to cervical cancer the other to breast cancer...."
"Lost sister to Ovarian cancer, Aunt to lung, husband living with Prostate cancer..."
"my dad pass away with liver cancer. my daughter robyn has ovaian cancer its bad also she has 2 spots on her left breast. ... i had curvical, aslo had lung cancer, i'm cancer free... my daughter amanda had ovarian cancer she is cancer free"
"my mom has breast cancer for the second time"
"My dad is currently fighting lymphoma. Fortunately it is going really well and is expected to be done with chemo after two more rounds. My wife's aunt died this week due to cancer in the liver and bone... My wife had skin cancer on her nose...Fortunately all of her check-ups have been clear since."
And as for me? I lost both my grandfathers and my mother. My cousin is in recovery for Breast Cancer and doing well. Recently a very good friend of Jack's (my boyfriend) was diagnosed with the disease, so she's now in our thoughts and prayers.
What You Can Do has teamed up with The Lung Cancer Alliance, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, SHARE, TheBreastCancerSite.com, The Colon Cancer Alliance, and The Skin Cancer Foundation. All of these organizations offer great programs and support for people and families struggling with this disease.
When I took on this 46 day challenge, I knew that I would have to address cancer, but how? I wanted to get people talking so we that we could get motivated and do something about this issue. It seems that there is no one that cancer doesn't touch. It doesn't discriminate by age, gender, race or religion. There is no one target. So I'm really not sure what to do about it. I guess I wanted to get our community talking. To share stories, to offer support and guidance on where to turn for help. I knew I wanted to take time to reflect on this disease, so that's what I'm going to do with my minute today.
Hopefully in the future people's posts will be different. They'll say, "I'm cured!" but for now, all of those affected are in my thoughts - especially today.
Thanks
Alicia
