Why Fight To End Cancer?

We Are All A Part Of The Fight

By Jennifer Huggins, Executive Director
Fight To End Cancer
Wednesday November 20, 2013; 7:40 pm

Since I was a child the concept of sickness has been very real to me. I had spent a lot of time in the hospital due to a few serious injuries, asthma, and bouts with anaphyllaxis. I personally experienced the difference medicine can make between life and death. After being saved from several close calls by the power of medicine and an exceptional system, I began to feel invincible. The worry that I would ever surrender to my illnesses became a distant feeling. However, as I grew up and became more aware of the world around me, I realized that invincibility is not reality.

Something occurred to me one day while talking to a friend who was in her 7th year of battling cancer. Not every medicine came with the same results that had treated my illnesses. When I would leave hospital after knocking at death’s door, I could breath a sigh of relief and go back to my day feeling grateful to be alive. Each time my friend would visit the hospital, it was in the hope that the painful treatments would lengthen the time she could continue fighting her illness.

Cancer not only touches all of us, it is the second most common cause of death in North America, accounting for nearly 1 in 4 deaths. On a global level it is well known that humankind is contributing to many carcinogenic activities, however, at the individual level the effects of this reality are, for the most part, out of our hands. We are slowly making progress on identifying many of the causes of cancer, but much of our resources need to be directed to taking care of treating those presently affected.

My friend and hero lost her battle with cancer in 2013. I watched the disease and it’s treatments weaken her physically, but not once did she let it defeat her. The family put all of their resources into fighting the disease, and they too, were never defeated. Defeat is not an option. As long as we can fight, we need to. From fighting to stop carcinogenic activities, to fighting to find a cure, we are all a part of the Fight To End Cancer.