I am the face of lung cancer:
Here I am, a few months before I became a lung cancer statistic, one of over 215,000 people in the US diagnosed annually with lung cancer.
I received my diagnosis in December of 2008, three days before my 53rd birthday.
What was originally thought to be stage 1 cancer was staged at IV, after surgery to remove the upper lobe in my right lung. 2 years later, I'm still in treatment, still fighting.
According to http://www.lungcancer.org/reading/about.php
“It is the second most diagnosed cancer in men and women (after prostate and breast, respectively), but it is the number one cause of death from cancer each year in both men and women.”
The most immediate question I face, when sharing my story is "Do you smoke?" I am a non-smoker.
Think about it: many of us know people who have smoked for 30 years or more, and THEY DON'T have lung cancer.
According to the Lung Cancer Alliance: Over 60% of new cases are never-smokers or former smokers, MANY of whom quit decades ago.
So, folks--let's get past the stigma, and make the battle against the #1 cancer killer as fashionable as the battle against breast cancer.
Lung cancer kills mommies, too.
