Curing cancer can start with you

In seventh grade my English teacher assigned that classic essay, “A Person I Admire.” While… In seventh grade my English teacher assigned that classic essay, “A Person I Admire.” While I have every ounce of respect for my father and mother – the two people most of my classmates wrote about – I decided instead to devote the assignment to my next-door neighbor, Sandra. A 40-something-year-old mother with three kids, a loving husband, a mega-watt smile and a thousand kind things to say about almost anyone. I didn’t just admire her. I wanted to be her.

Three years after I turned in my paper, she won the Henry L. Dixon Award for outstanding volunteer service to disadvantaged people, presented by our county’s Community Action Ward. The local newspaper wrote an article about her service and incredible background. Reading it, I learned about the many atypical battles she had overcome to become the shining role model everyone knew and loved.

Two years later, she died of breast cancer.

Sandra was a unique woman, but unfortunately, the story is not. She wasn’t the first person I knew to die from this terrible disease. Even worse, she probably won’t be the last.

That said, breast cancer research works. According to the most recent issue of Glamour magazine, more than 43,000 women died from breast cancer in 1990. In 2006, that number was less than 41,000. More than 119,000 mastectomies were performed in 1993 and thanks to early detection, by 2005 (just 12 years later), it was just over 72,000.

During the ’80s, women could expect to spend about 24 months in chemotherapy once diagnosed. Today, the average patient spends two to six months undergoing this treatment. Thanks to increased education and awareness of the disease, the number of women who said that they’d had a mammogram within the past two years more than doubled from 1987 to 2003.

We’re not quite old enough to receive mammograms – experts recommend receiving them annually starting at age 40 – but there is plenty else for college students to do in the fight against breast cancer, and on behalf of the one in seven women who will be diagnosed in their lifetimes, we have a huge and awesome responsibility, an absolute obligation, to take up battle.

Even just joining a Facebook group such as “Tell 10 to Tell 10!” makes a difference, assuming you follow its instructions. The group provides a link to www.thebreastcancersite.org and asks that at least once a day, you simply click the link to help women in need get free mammograms.

How is this possible? As explained in the group’s information section: “Corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising.” In other words, the more people who view the page with their advertisements on it, the more money – mammograms – they will donate. A win-win situation if I ever heard one.

A second option is participating in the various walks, runs and races around Pittsburgh that raise money for breast cancer research, like Race for the Cure. At barely three miles (it’s a 5K), it’s a perfect opportunity to meander calmly around our beautiful city without feeling like you’re wasting time.

The only one I’ve ever participated in is the one in Washington, D.C. It is a gorgeous stroll past the various museums in our capital, the Washington Monument and sometimes it’s possible to glimpse the White House. And if you’re interested in running, you’ll be done with a good deed in less than an hour. Life hardly gets easier.

Maybe most importantly, bring down the bad numbers by protecting yourself. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so in the next few weeks take the time to learn how, when and why to perform a breast self-exam. Those few minutes every month could save your life.

And men, if you’re still reading, don’t turn the page quite yet. There’s information on this subject for you, too, like the fact that about 450 men will die of breast cancer by the end of 2007. About 2,030 will be diagnosed. In other words, for every 100 women diagnosed, one man is diagnosed, too. So not only do you share the social responsibility of helping cancer patients have the treatment they need as quickly as possible, but you also share a risk for developing breast cancer yourself. Hop on board.

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer is a miraculous 96 percent. But until that number reaches 100, breast cancer must be considered a serious issue for every one of us. Doctors, researchers, patients and their families need our help now. It’s no passing sentiment that someday, we might need them to return the favor.

In memory of Sandra and anyone you’ve known with this disease: Remember that breast cancer kills.

But it doesn’t need to be that way forever.

E-mail Carolyn your stories at ceg36@pitt.edu.