Cancer Click

Hey, everybody! Wouldn't you love to enter a contest for a good cause, like breast cancer awareness? :-)

Imagine winning digital camera--a PINK one no less! If that doesn't catch people's attention, I don't know what would be an easier way to mention cancer awareness to others. Go to the 5 Minutes for Mom website to enter the contest for a chance to win a cute pink digital camera. Spread the word!

Oh, and if you search further down on the page, there is a pink button you can click on: if there are so many clicks, the sponsors of this breast cancer campaign will pay for mammograms for women in need. Your click will help another woman somewhere. Every click counts :-)

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It's good to know that cancers particular to women are getting more attention in recent years. I can only hope more research and better medicines and technological advances will benefit more women in my lifetime, if not the next generation.

It would be very cool if someone could invent something better and more accurate than the painful mammogram, so that one day women can cringe in horror at the very thought of it--imagining it to be some sort of medieval torture device (which I think it is)!

When I think of breast cancer, I think of my mother in-law, who battled and survived it over 14 years ago. She had a mastectomy and danced two weeks later at her middle son's wedding. :-) And she's still going strong. You go, Mom!

She and my fil's older sister are actually the only close, relatives I know who've had breast cancer, though I've known of friends' or neighbor's relatives who've had to battle with breast cancer.

While I think it is fabulous that breast cancer has gotten so much publicity in recent years, I hope that other forms of cancer will not be eclipsed by it, and will in fact, gain as much awareness to garner research funding to benefit future patients. Particularly women's reproductive cancers, which I know little about--and which ob/gyns don't discuss with you beyond asking for a family history, or if you've got something going on. I lost my favorite auntie to ovarian cancer. I didn't know anything about it then...only that it took her from my uncle and my family and so many people who loved her. And truth be told: I'm not even sure if it was ovarian cancer. I only know that it was related to the reproductive system.

It seems that women's reproductive cancers are still somewhat of a mystery. It's up to the public to educate themselves--docs aren't much help unless something goes wrong in your system. Even when I may occasionally discuss women's reproductive issues that includes cancer, with close friends, I realize our knowledge is quite limited.

It's too bad that it takes celebrities' battles with cancer to make people aware of female reproductive cancers, as if non-celebrities don't count. Women like Gilda Radner or Fran Drescher ("The Nanny"). Fran Drescher has become an activist extraordinare for women's cancers and has a wonderful website dedicated to raising awareness through her foundation, Cancer Schmancer.

And what of other cancers? A close friend battled and won over testicular cancer (before Lance Armstrong became famous). My dad and other male relatives suffered from prostrate cancer, two cousins from the same family lost their battle with brain cancer in the last year, and now my aunt recently had major surgery for a brain tumor. Another aunt has a growth on her pancreas, and my sister in-law is battling Hodgkins (re-diagnosed from diagnosis of a rare form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma earlier this summer). How much attention does prostrate, brain, pancreatic and Hodgkins get, I wonder?

The "C" word is scary, especially when you learn that someone close to you has gotton it. I can't imagine what the ones who are afflicted with it must be going through. But I am inspired by my sil, whose sister put up a website for her to keep a journal on her progress, which keeps her family and friends and even total strangers (usually friends of friends or family!) around the country up-to date. Check out her site at caringbridge.org.

There are other inspiring stories on that website worth reading, also. :-)

Please don't forget to click on 5 Minutes for Mom !