So, ever since this "C" has been around, my whole family, mainly my mom and I, have taken a gander at the ol' World Wide Web. Bad idea....bad bad bad idea. It tells you things like the average survival rate for lung cancer victims is 16 percent. It tells you that most people with later stage cancer die within a year. Stuff I was not prepared for. Things you don't think you have to face in 2011. I know a lot of people, or children of people that have breast cancer. None of them have died. Pink pink pink, wear your pink, pink ribbons, pink t-shirts, marathons for pink people! Everyone knows what month is breast cancer awareness month, everyone know that a pink ribbon means breast cancer.
Do you know what color is assigned to lung cancer?
Come on...you can do it...think about it...
Didn't think so. It's white. I'm not going to lie. I knew pink was the color for breast cancer, I didn't know white was the color for lung cancer. I figured it out the night we found out about the big "C." I went online and in a terrible crying spell, spent a lot of money on WHITE stuff. White car magnets, white bracelets, white t-shirts and the list goes on. It was after this I found on another wesbite the HORRIBLE statistics that go along with lung cancer.
Did you know that lung cancer has the second worst survival rate after pancreatic cancer? Did you know lung cancer kills more people than breast, prostate, colon and pancreatic COMBINED? I didn't either.
Lung cancer has a five year survival rate of 16%. Breast cancer, however, has a 5 year survival rate of 88%. Prostate has a 5 year survival rate of 99%.
Why? WHY?! Money.
Annually, the funding for breast cancer is more than $27,000 per victim. It is less than $1,200 for a lung cancer victim. I am angry. I am very angry. I think a lot of this disconnect has to do with blame. Breast cancer victims didn't do anything to deserve their cancer, they are victims. Lung cancer victims deserve their cancer, they smoked, they brought it on themselves, why raise money for people who did this to themselves. Right?
Wrong. My mom did not do THIS to herself. She is not a chronic smoker, never has been. She does not have bad lungs. She does NOT deserve this. And with that said, smokers, who make up 90% of lung cancer victims, do not deserve this either. They deserve no chance? They deserve no one speaking for them? No one wearing a white ribbon or sporting a white t-shirt while running a race?
I disagree. So, I've order a large amount of white bracelets and will be passing them out. I will wear mine everyday. I will wear my t-shirt and place my ribbon magnet on my car.
"If not us, who? If not now, when?"
Wow, this is incredible. I wondered if all the money that went to research for breast cancer was actually going to the cause, or if it was just about building organizations and making people rich. It's good to know that the research does actually get funded and that effective treatments come from it. You're right about the blame thing, I think. Some types of illness really do have a stigma, and people have a hard time getting out from under that. Thanks for sharing this. Really good to know. And I'll wear some white in support too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, friend. I will give you a white bracelet next time I see you if you would like. I hope it didn't come across like I was attacking people with breast cancer. I most certainly wasn't, just used that as an example because it is the most publicized.
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