Fighting Back

Lisa got word over the weekend that her childhood friend, Connie, died after a lengthy battle with cancer.

At our age, we’re just not used to hearing words like ‘childhood friend, died and cancer’ strung together. It’s hard to wrap our minds around that one.

Cancer has been particularly cruel to Lisa’s family. She has lost a number of relatives over the years to this dread disease and now her wonderful friend.

When I went to work for the American Cancer Society, one of the reasons I did so was I wanted to do my part to fight cancer. Even after I left ACS, I continued to ‘fight back’ as a volunteer. We want to defeat this foe.

There are lots of ways we can ‘fight back’ against cancer. We used to have a ‘fight back’ ceremony at Relay For Life events. Since that is still a part of Relay’s slogan (“Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back”) I suspect they still do.

One particular way we would fight back is that the emcee of that particular Relay would ask for people to talk about ways people were planning to fight back in the coming year.

• A person might reply that he was planning to cut back on drinking sodas and start drinking more water or she might say she is cutting back on fast food and trying to eat more healthy fruits and vegetables each day.
• Someone else might raise her hand and say by making sure they apply sunscreen when they are outside.
• A third person might answer that he was going to quit smoking in the new year.

That one always got a rousing bit of applause.

You can fight cancer in a number of ways – by getting a colonoscopy at age 50 and doing so at regular 10-year intervals thereafter. Women can get their annual mammogram starting at age 40 and do their regular Pap tests as recommended by ACS.

In terms of nutrition, eat at least two-and-a-half cups of vegetables and fruits each day; choose whole grain products rather than refined grain products; limit your amount of red meat and processed meat intake. And stay active!

With regard to sunscreen, use at least an SPF 30, use the correct amount of the material and re-apply frequently if you are going to be outside for a long period of time, if you are going to be in the water or if you perspire. You should also consider wearing a tight-woven hat.

You can log on to www.cancer.org for more details on these screening guidelines and others. And at the start of the ACS Relay For Life season, you can “Fight Back” by getting  involved with a relay event close to you. For more information, you can go to RelayForLife.org.

As for Connie, I’m sure Lisa will continue to Celebrate her life and Remember the special times they spent together - most recently when they got together at their class reunion last fall.

And moving forward, she and the rest of our family will continue to Fight Back against this dread disease.

JG  

(Source: cancer.org)

Originally posted 3/5/2012