It’s the “c” word: Cancer.
With the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s Mother’s Day Race for the Cure at the Mall of America, coupled with other fine foundations like Lance Armstrong’s LiveStrong organization, visibility and awareness about cancer and the continuing need for ALL kinds of cancer research is at an all-time high. Yet cures seem to be as elusive as grabbing water with bare hands.
Last year, the federal government’s National Cancer Institute spent more than $1.5 billion on cancer research. Universities and other private entities spend tens of millions in an attempt to find a cure as well. The results according to the NIH: The incidence rate for all cancers combined — the number of new cancer cases per 100,000 persons per year — declined on average 1.1 percent per year between 1992 and 1998.
Billions spent and a 1.1 percent decline in cancer deaths. Seems to me room for improvement exists.
When America needed an answer to put an end to WWII, Roosevelt ordered The Manhattan Project, leading to the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb. Success. So to speak.
If the best scientific minds of the world were required to band together, like The Manhattan Project formula, I imagine we would experience much more remarkable and ever-lasting success: A cure putting an end to a disease that robs people of their lives every day.
Now is the time. We need to urge this to happen so good people like Eldon, who writes the popular blog Fat Cyclist, doesn’t have to lay sleepless at night wondering how he and his kids are going to get on with life when his wife Susan is taken from them thanks to breast cancer. We need get on top of this now so our own moms, dads, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters don’t have to fight this mysterious disease at any point in their lives.
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[...] RAAZ wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptKomen Foundation’s Mother’s Day Race for the Cure at the Mall of America, coupled with other fine foundations like Lance Armstrong’s LiveStrong organization, visibility and awareness about cancer and the continuing need for ALL kinds of … [...]
[...] Day 4 of 30 Days – Curing Cancer By dailytri Komen Foundation?s Mother?s Day Race for the Cure at the Mall of America, coupled with other fine foundations like Lance Armstrong?s LiveStrong organization, visibility and awareness about cancer and the continuing need for ALL kinds of … Land of 10000 Perspectives – http://dailytri.wordpress.com [...]
Yes, we can march, ride, walk, scream, beg, and raise awareness like mad for all types ailments and causes, but unless BIG money gets involved, progress is slow and limited at best. I’m type 2 diabetic, and am patiently waiting for some break through, but I read about promising research that all seems to dead end, or disappear all together. Frustrating at best, a scam at worst to us all that give a lot of our time and money to charity events. Riding for MS, MS, diabetes ect is great, but when will we see results?
Thanks for the link to Fatty’s blog. Susan’ fight for life is really sobering, while being enlightening as to the effects of the dreaed cancer. I’m a faithful daily reader of his, and her story makes me think long and hard about what life can dish out, and how to deal with it.
Thank you.
Just a correction (though it really doesn’t change the horrible path)
Susan is fighting Breast Cancer. It has spread to her bones and brain. But it’s still Breast Cancer.
Breast cancer doesn’t kill because the breast is invaded ( you can live without those), it kills because it spreads to vital organs. However when that happens, a lot of people think that the person died of the “other” cancer, and they don’t really know how pervasive Breast Cancer really is.
But like I said, it doesn’t change the course that she is on.