I woke up last Friday thrilled about my friend Nicole, a breast cancer survivor, who was about to run the Amica Half Marathon here in Charlotte. My post was going to be titled “Take that, cancer!” in celebration of her finishing after a year of fighting cancer and winning. However, as the weekend progressed, my thoughts started to take a different shape.
In my first blog post I mentioned I never had a “list” of cancer survivors or loved ones to memorialize until recently. The stats say that 1 in every 3 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. This past weekend I encountered four people who shared their story with me; all of them at various stages of the disease and at various stages of their lives.
Heartbreak- Friday morning during my normal debrief with my boss, we discussed Thanksgiving plans. She mentioned she would be traveling home to Michigan to see her mom unexpectedly. Her mom was just diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer at 84. She took it in stride telling me her mother had smoked for years so the diagnosis wasn’t a huge surprise and that they were beginning chemo treatments immediately. I respected the strong character my boss has always portrayed and didn’t ask questions that could expose vulnerability but my heart broke for her and her mom.
Hope- Saturday morning I woke up to a call from a friend giving me an update on Nicole’s progress during the half marathon. She was pacing at 7:30min miles and had just crossed mile 6. The finish line was right down the street from my home so I got ready and left to meet her friend and her brother there. The significance of this weekend’s race was not only Nicole exceeding her goal to finish in less than 1 hour and 50 minutes, but that one year ago this past Friday, she was completing her first chemo treatment for stage 1 breast cancer. What a difference a year makes! Nicole never once looked at her diagnosis as a hindrance. Not only has she defeated cancer and completed a half marathon, but she is running a full marathon in Kiawah Island in just a few weeks! Take that, cancer!
Hope- After I left Nicole, I went to a friend’s house for a small get together where I met another lady, Allison, who was full of life. She has a beautiful smile and personality. When I told her what my morning had consisted of, she shared with me that she was also a survivor of breast cancer. She did have to take treatment and prevention a bit further with a mastectomy and hysterectomy, but she’s approaching 2 years in remission. Take that, cancer!
Heartbreak- For those of you who watched the Panthers game on CBS yesterday, in the 4th quarter at the 2 minute warning, CBS showed the bravest little girl with who was on the field with the TopCat Cheerleaders. Isabella is 6 years old and has neuroblastoma. From the Mayo Clinic- “Typically, neuroblastoma affects children 5 or younger, says the Mayo Clinic. In fact, it's the most prevalent cancer found in infants.” Isabella, her mother and a representative from the Make a Wish Foundation stayed on the sidelines for a good portion of the game even though there were a few times she needed to go into the locker room to rest or to warm up. Right as CBS gave Isabella the spotlight I talked to her mom for a brief moment to learn more. She shared with me that Isabella has relapsed four times and that the doctor’s finally told them to bring her back to Charlotte from NYC where she was being treated with multiple rounds of chemo.
Hope- right after her mom said that she let out an exhale and we both looked at Isabella smiling for the camera. Then her mom said, “But she still keeps fighting.” Take…..that…..cancer.
My weekend was filled with tons of emotions and thankfully I was able to end it with a super fun night appropriately titled an “Evening of Hope and Inspiration.” It was a perfect way to be reminded how good and faithful God is and how thankful I am that He is in control.
Each of my encounters this weekend was an opportunity for me and for you, through this blog post of course, to be inspired that we can do something. We can support through donations, through actions, through encouraging words, and most importantly through prayer that one day in our future we will speak of cancer as a thing of the past.
No matter how heartbreaking a story is, we can choose to have Hope J
