Why Blog Now?
Many of us have some experience with cancer. That devastating disease has either touched us personally, or it has impacted the life of a loved one. Most of us personally know a patient, or know of someone, who has lost the battle.
Through this blog I’ll share my personal lessons after experiencing teenage cancer. Back then, I was in the midst of that conflicting age when I wasn’t a child anymore, yet barely an adult.
We all know that cancer is a major health problem worldwide and that it’s the second leading cause of death in the United States. In doing some research, I found some alarming statistics. I’ll share a few in the lines below.
A total of 1,688,780 new cancer cases were projected to occur in 2017 (1). From my point of view (and experience), one is too many.
An estimated 69,212 adolescents and young adults (AYA’s), ages 15 to 39 were diagnosed with cancer in 2011 (3). As if this was not bad enough, most books are written for adults, AYA’s are forced to learn life-lessons too soon, and way too fast.
Cancer expenditure is estimated to reach $156 billion by 2020(4). What if we focused more on prevention?
Around one third of cancer deaths are due to the five-leading behavioral and dietary risks: high body mass index, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of physical activity, tobacco use, and alcohol use (2). That’s an approximate 563,000 deaths we could potentially impact in 2018 by focusing on healthy life-style choices. I think that saving only one is worth all the effort!
“In addition, creative new strategies are also needed to increase healthy behaviors nationwide, and to more broadly apply existing cancer control knowledge across all segments of the population, with an emphasis on disadvantaged groups” (1).
These projections suggest that we will all have some exposure to cancer of varying degrees and magnitudes. The lessons from our journeys potentially hold life-saving treasures that we can all draw from when confronted with similar family crisis. We don’t have to go through cancer alone – our stories are powerful.
The lessons learned during that difficult time nudged me to keep on this journey. Exploring more well-being alternatives has not only kept me cancer-free for almost three decades, it’s been tons of fun.
My intent for this blog is to share my after-journey, because after facing death, we are left with … our whole life!
References:
(1) Cancer Statistics, 2017. A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Rebecca L. Siegel MPH, Kimberly D. Miller MPH, Ahmedin Jemal DVM, PhD. Published January 5th, 2017.
(2) World Health Organization
(3) World cancer report 2014
(4) National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health
