Cancer: it is my family history
dimanche 1 mars 2009
Par : Christina Van Beek

Cancer. Unfortunately, it is seems to be striking the women on my mom's side of the family. Will it happen to me too?

Why do I relay? Well, it is such an important cause for me.

My first real experience of cancer was when my aunt Ida (one of my mom's sisters) was going through chemo treatments and battling stomach cancer which is apparently very rare. I remember her getting thinner and thinner all the time. My family and I would go visit so that my mom could help look after her. Months later she lost her life to it.

January 2002, my mom started suffering from back pain. No matter what she tried, nothing seemed to help relieve it. By the end of July that year she was diagnosed with Secondary Bone cancer of the Primary Unknown (unknown, that is the scary part!).

My sister and spent a lot of time trying to look after our mom who was always in a lot of pain (as bone cancer causes) and slowly dying. After losing our dad, a few years earlier, we were now preparing for the death of another parent. We seemed so young to be having to deal with this. March 9, 2003, my mom succumbed to the cancer. Exactly one month and one day to her next birthday.

Just this past November, I lost my aunt Judy (my mom's other sister) to Secondary Bone cancer which started out as breast cancer. When she was originally tested everything came back negative and we thought that she was lucky. Unfortunately, that was not the case. My mom's family now having to deal with the death of another family due to cancer.
Now just most recently, my husband lost his uncle Ray to cancer. It was very sudden. He had only known a for a few weeks.

Why do I relay? What better way to honour the memory of the loved ones I have lost. My hope is that we can raise money for research and find a cure sooner rather than later.