Only The Good Die Young
Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It can not take away my heart and it can not take away my soul. Jim Valvano-Espy speech 1993
FUCK CANCER!
I say it a lot. It took only three days into 2016 before those horrid words came from my mouth once again.
My Facebook friend Suzanne died a few days ago. She was a friend of some friends and we never met. It was one of those Facebook things where you see someone who knows someone and they look cool or even just okay and suddenly you're friends. I can only remember having two conversations with her.
The first was about musician Leon Russell. She was a huge fan. I'm sure she'd be happy to know I'm seeing Leon in about two weeks.
The second was a note when I was diagnosed with Melanoma last Spring. I knew she was in the midst of her ongoing battle with Cancer and yet she reached out to a stranger to see if he had any questions or needed any help. Remarkable!
The support you see in the Health and Wellness communities never fails to amaze me. I see it all the time in the Parkinson's community but it seems to be more in the Cancer world. I don't know why this is....maybe they don't want anyone else to go through what they have...maybe. But I now have two people that I never met, that put aside their own issues to try to help...and have since died. Can you think of anything more selfless than that? Makes you want to step up your own game.
Last year I wrote 18 blog posts about Cancer. EIGHTEEN!! I could write one every day but I don't want to do that. What I want to do help rid society of this plague. To help do that, I'll give you some links to some groups that do research and promote awareness for particular Cancers. Pick one or find one that you like and give some of your money or some of your time.
Let's see if we can get people like me to stop writing these stories. The sooner the better.
When you die, it does not mean you lose to Cancer. You beat Cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live. Stuart Scott-Espy speech 2014
Gilda's Club raises money for Ovarian Cancer. St. Baldrick's does funding for Pediatric Cancer. This is Leukemia and Lymphoma Society website. Finally, here is a place to learn more about Melanoma.
Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.