How Has Cancer Touched Your Life?

 “Has anyone in your family ever had cancer?” the insurance salesman asked me. I could tell by the way he looked at me that he expected me to say yes. It was 1980 and I was 24 years old. Bill and I had just gotten married and the word “cancer” was not something I ever thought about. When I told the salesman “no” he looked surprised and assured me that sooner or later I would know someone with cancer. Unfortunately, he was right.

In 1990 Bill’s father died of lymphoma and a few months later my mother died from colon cancer. Fast forward a few more years and my cousin Martha was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Over the years Martha has had a mastectomy, radiation and mega-doses of powerful chemo-therapy. Her cancer disappeared for years at a time, but recently came back again. A few years ago Bill’s only brother, Rick, died of lung cancer.

These are just my family members who have had cancer, there’s an even longer list of friends who still fight the battle no one wants to fight. Shannon, Kim, Gina,  Marguerite, Gretchen, Paulette and on and on. 

A few months ago my friend Martha Bragg asked me to help her with raising awareness of Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society by periodically putting articles in our local newspaper and that’s why I am writing this article. I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that local teams are working hard in my community and yours to raise money to fight cancer. They are selling baked goods, washing cars and holding raffles.

Most towns have a host of silent heroes who work on these teams. They are the cooks in the kitchen who come home after a long day at work and bake pies and cakes to help raise money. They are the homemakers clubs who sell tickets on handmade quilts. They are people like Kathy Frick, who has driven countless number of people to treatment and Martha Bragg who has worked at every Relay since it began. They are the church members praying for a cure and health care workers who check on the sick whether they are on the clock or not. They do this because they sincerely care about others-the ones who walk the survivors lap, as well as those who are remembered with luminaries and yes, they are heroes, too.

If you haven’t listened to Martina McBrides song called “I’m gonna love you through it,” I encourage you to do so. No one wants to go through cancer alone and no one should have to. The Relay for Life ceremony is one way a community can help those with cancer by “loving them through it.”

Let’s do our part to help out. If you aren’t on a team, buy tickets or baked goods from someone who is. Attend the Relay for Life Ceremony. Light luminaries. Together we can make a difference.

Here are some facts about cancer that you might not know

  Four cancers account for 52% of all newly diagnosed cancers in men.  These include prostate cancer (which alone accounts for 28% of newly diagnosed male cancers in 2010), lung cancer and colorectal cancer.  For women, 52% of new cancer diagnoses will be in the three most common female cancers, including lung, breast and colorectal cancer.

 What many women don’t realize is that the most common cause of cancer death in women is not breast cancer (although breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women), but lung cancer (26% of cancer deaths in women are from lung cancer).

 We lose approximately 1500 people every day as a result of cancer.

Cancer continues to be the leading cause of deaths for people in this country between the ages of 40 and 79, while heart disease is far and away the leading cause of death in people age 80 and over.

 The probability of developing cancer in your lifetime in the United States is 44% for men and 38% for women.  Women are generally diagnosed with cancer at younger ages than men.

The insurance salesman was correct…sooner or later cancer touches us all.

 

Article referenced ((http://www.cancer.org/AboutUs/DrLensBlog/post/2010/07/07/The-2010-Statistics-Are-Out-And-767000-People-Have-Celebrated-More-Birthdays.aspx)