Written by Cynthia Allanigue
When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer more than two years ago, the first thing my friends did, besides cry buckets of tears with me, was to surf the internet and visit websites for information about cancer. I remember getting volumes and volumes of documents culled from various websites. Information about what may have caused my cancer, what treatments were available, health diets to kill cancer cells and prevent them from coming back were among the vast information we gathered. They even downloaded testimonials and exchanges from survivors I had never met but whose experiences proved vital in my fight with the disease. God knows I had never relied much on the web until I came face to face with death.
Cancer has a way of altering one’s life forever. The life of a cancer patient revolves around chemotherapy, radiation, tamoxifen, painkillers, vomit suppressants and countless needle pricks during treatment. I have had close to 70 needle pricks while doctors and nurses tried to find the right vein to administer chemo, boost white blood cells daily and check my blood count. For the rest of your life, you depend on your doctor to tell you if your time is up. But that’s not how it has to be. Cancer patients find empowerment in themselves when they are equipped with knowledge. Knowledge is power. Cancer survivors now have a bigger chance of living long and healthy lives compared to 5 years ago, if detected early. Because of lack of information on early detection and prevention, cancer still ranks 5th among the top 10 leading causes of death in the Philippines, with breast and lung cancer accounting for 30% of all cancer cases. Colon cancer comes third. Every year, there are 72,000 new cancer cases with about 38,000 deaths, each year. With the advance in cancer research, these are obscene figures. Especially in a poor country like the Philippines, people who cannot afford treatments succumb to or die of cancer. People don’t know that cancer can be prevented or cured. They don’t know that help can be had. They don’t know that if they find a deadly lump on their breasts, it’s not necessarily a death sentence. They just do not know. Herein comes the importance of information in our pursuit to raise healthy Filipinos, healthy women and children. All I know is that we have to depend on proper information to empower us in our daily lives as citizens and as consumers. A cancer patient needs no less. So to all of you we say HELP US. Help us avail of knowledge so that we may, as cancer patients, beat this deadly disease. We don’t want to go down without a fight. We do not want the stress and the anguish that go with a life threatening disease. Help us to find courage and inspiration as we take a most unusual journey when we come face to face with cancer. We want to think that when our hair falls down during chemo, our world does not go down with it. Help us arm ourselves with the necessary information so that we can realize that cancer doesn’t mean our days are numbered. We want to wake up knowing that there is life, a beautiful life, after cancer. Cancer survivors, including myself, are some of the luckiest people on earth not only because we have been given the chance to prove and experience the power within us, but also because after our ordeal, we learn to appreciate life in ways not many people do. The most difficult part for a cancer patient is to deal with the sickness ALONE. Of course, we have friends and families, and God who is the ultimate source of courage and strength. But knowing that there is a whole community of support groups who are willing to make this journey with us, then the battle is half-won.
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When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer more than two years ago, the first thing my friends did, besides cry buckets of tears with me, was to surf the internet and visit websites for information about cancer. I remember getting volumes and volumes of documents culled from various websites. Information about what may have caused my cancer, what treatments were available, health diets to kill cancer cells and prevent them from coming back were among the vast information we gathered. They even downloaded testimonials and exchanges from survivors I had never met but whose experiences proved vital in my fight with the disease. God knows I had never relied much on the web until I came face to face with death.
Cancer has a way of altering one’s life forever. The life of a cancer patient revolves around chemotherapy, radiation, tamoxifen, painkillers, vomit suppressants and countless needle pricks during treatment. I have had close to 70 needle pricks while doctors and nurses tried to find the right vein to administer chemo, boost white blood cells daily and check my blood count. For the rest of your life, you depend on your doctor to tell you if your time is up. But that’s not how it has to be. Cancer patients find empowerment in themselves when they are equipped with knowledge. Knowledge is power. Cancer survivors now have a bigger chance of living long and healthy lives compared to 5 years ago, if detected early. Because of lack of information on early detection and prevention, cancer still ranks 5th among the top 10 leading causes of death in the Philippines, with breast and lung cancer accounting for 30% of all cancer cases. Colon cancer comes third. Every year, there are 72,000 new cancer cases with about 38,000 deaths, each year. With the advance in cancer research, these are obscene figures. Especially in a poor country like the Philippines, people who cannot afford treatments succumb to or die of cancer. People don’t know that cancer can be prevented or cured. They don’t know that help can be had. They don’t know that if they find a deadly lump on their breasts, it’s not necessarily a death sentence. They just do not know. Herein comes the importance of information in our pursuit to raise healthy Filipinos, healthy women and children. All I know is that we have to depend on proper information to empower us in our daily lives as citizens and as consumers. A cancer patient needs no less. So to all of you we say HELP US. Help us avail of knowledge so that we may, as cancer patients, beat this deadly disease. We don’t want to go down without a fight. We do not want the stress and the anguish that go with a life threatening disease. Help us to find courage and inspiration as we take a most unusual journey when we come face to face with cancer. We want to think that when our hair falls down during chemo, our world does not go down with it. Help us arm ourselves with the necessary information so that we can realize that cancer doesn’t mean our days are numbered. We want to wake up knowing that there is life, a beautiful life, after cancer. Cancer survivors, including myself, are some of the luckiest people on earth not only because we have been given the chance to prove and experience the power within us, but also because after our ordeal, we learn to appreciate life in ways not many people do. The most difficult part for a cancer patient is to deal with the sickness ALONE. Of course, we have friends and families, and God who is the ultimate source of courage and strength. But knowing that there is a whole community of support groups who are willing to make this journey with us, then the battle is half-won.
Source
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