Go Away…Please

You have silently sneaked into our neighborhoods, our homes, our bodies.  You have taken away our friends and our family members.  You have scared us…..sometimes to death.

You wait around every corner. You are in the foods we eat. You are in the air we breathe. Sometimes, you just hide in our genes. You do not care if we are rich or poor, young or old, nasty or nice.   You are hated by everyone. You are feared by everyone. Everyone wants you gone from this Earth. Go away…..please.

Cancer affects us all. We all know someone suffering from this dreaded disease. I have been diagnosed twice with cancer. I had a malignant melanoma removed from my right arm. I had prostate cancer and had my prostate surgically removed. This July, I will be ten years cancer free.  It should be a day to celebrate, and I will. But once you have had a cancer diagnosis, you wake up every morning hoping that it has not returned or that a new cancer has not formed.  It is scary stuff!

So what can we do with this silent invader? We can fight it with every fiber of our being. Big picture, we can support cancer research by donating money, or time, or just running in charity walks and races. Small picture, we can reach out and support those suffering with cancer now. Be a friend. Be a ride to a doctor appointment. Be a shoulder to cry on.

For ourselves, we can fight by taking care of ourselves. Though it is no guarantee, eating a healthy diet of closer to natural foods and getting off the couch and exercising certainly can’t hurt. Perhaps the best thing we can do is focus on early detection. I am alive because I put embarrassment aside and let the doctor do his thing every year. My oldest brother is dead, because he did not. Two diagnoses of prostate cancer, only one survivor. So, get to your appointments. Get the testing done. Fight it with all you have.

I’ll close with a quote from a Dylan Thomas poem. “Do not go gentle into that good night. Fight, fight against the dying of the light.”

It’s Tuesday, so I will be working the next two days and, therefore, no blog. See you Friday!