Cancer Has no Friends

We step back from the "we" for this 0ne and into the "I". Like most families, ours is no stranger to cancer. I hate it, I loathe it, it disgusts me. I lost my Mom after a 10 year battle with brain cancer. My sister survived Hodgkins Disease in her 20s and 25 years later she contracted breast cancer from the radiation treatments for Hodgkins. She's doing well. She and my Mom are the two most courageous people I have known, and they're not alone.

I just finished reading Bobby Murcer's autobiography, "Yankee For Life: My 40-Year Journey in Pinstripes". There's detailed information on what Bobby went through when he began feeling symptoms that lead to a discovery of cancer and the treatment, some of it experimental, that has followed. It hit close to home since it was the same type of cancer my Mom had. The current experimental treatment, which includes a vaccine in addition to radiation and chemo did not yet exist when she passed away in 2001.

The Yankees family has also been hit hard by cancer. The battles of Joe Torre and Mel Stottelmyre are well documented, but some Yankees farm hands have also been affected. Trenton Thunder teammates Chris Malec and Colin Curtis have both survived testicular cancer. John Nalbone of the Trenton Times has a nice story today on Malec and Curtis.

Research much continue and the government must be more responsible and flexible in the handing out of research grants. One day its my hope that cancer will basically be a thing of the past like polio or small pox.


Useful links

Learn more from the American Cancer Society.

The Brain Tumor Foundation.