I have cancer

Did I get your attention?

I don't have cancer. I just wanted to get your attention. It seems like every week there's another person I hear of that has cancer... a friend, a banker, the grocery clerk, a person at church, a child, a mom, an aunt, a grandfather, another blogger, a celebrity, the neighbor, the post man, just about everybody, anybody really.

For me, the news never ceases to "shock and awe". Cancer is my enemy. Far too many people are being diagnosed every single day.

Right now, my best friend has cancer.

And, there's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing anybody can do about it. We can't make it just go away... at least not without some hard work.

Two years ago, I decided to captain a Relay for Life team with my church. I volunteered to do this in honor of my Aunt (Julia's namesake) who survives breast cancer. She had a double mastectomy just a month after being diagnosed. Thank God, she has now been cancer free for over four years!

I believe that early detection and aggressive treatment, along with her solid faith in Christ Jesus, has brought her to her health. I also believe that if it were not for organizations like the Susan G Komen Foundation and the American Cancer Society, research and treatments would not have progressed enough over the last decade to save my Aunt's life.

Last year, I captained a Relay team again, but this time I did it in honor of Abbey. The cancer in Abbey is very rare; it is a kind that does not usually attack a healthy young adult. She often blogs of her frustrations in finding peers that can relate to her story - and has mentioned before the surprised reactions she has gotten from medical professionals regarding her case. Abbey has had extensive help in fighting the tumor - more than a years' share of countless chemo medicines and two big chemo embolization treatments. And now she has just completed radiation treatment at MD Anderson in Houston.

I believe that if it were not for organizations like the American Cancer Society, chemo and radiation treatments would not have advanced enough to help my friend ward off this cancer that has infected her body. Right now, Abbey may be cancer free. Her next CT scan is in a few more weeks, and it will reveal the sucess that radiation has had on her tumor. For all we know, she may be free from the tumor completely at this time.

I wish I could tell you how much money the ACS has given to people like Dr. Curley (Abbey's doctor in Texas), or how much money has gone into researching the proton machine that Abbey has blogged about in detail.. But, I have no idea - I only contribute my time, energy, and money in blind faith that it is going for the right research, to the right doctors, for the right reasons.

But, progress is being made. The ACS has a goal to (by 2015) reduce the occurance of cancer by 25% and to lower the number of deaths from cancer by 50%.

With an Aunt who survives breast cancer, a friend who survives esophegeal cancer, and a best friend who survives liver cancer... plus countless other people I encounter on a daily basis sharing their stories of how cancer has touched their lives, my only response was to find a way to get more involved with FIGHTING FOR A CURE. And, with the plans that the ACS have laid out, the goals they have publicised, and the mission statement they work and live by - how could I *not* wish to get more involved?

So, last year during Relay for Life, I made a commitment to myself (and to Abbey) that I would make fighting cancer more of a priority in my life. I no longer wanted to wait until the summer to contribute to the American Cancer Society. Something about the "Fight Back" ceremony during the Relay event sparked a fire in me... and I decided that I wanted to get on the Relay for Life committee, so that I could find other ways to plug into the organization. I have a passion for the Relay for Life event, but wanted to discipline myself to fight cancer every day of the year, not just overnight once a year.

Just as I figured they would, the Relay for Life committee welcomed me with open arms. And so, I attended a few committee meetings and LOVE the idea of planning for Relay even during the fall and winter months preceding the event. While at a committee meeting one night, I met the ACT (Ambassador Constituent Team ) Lead Ambassador. (Actually, I'd met him a long time ago - at my first Relay - but it wasn't until the committee meetings that I started to learn more about his advocacy roles.) His title is intimidating, but he's a great, very down-to-Earth guy. Basically, he is the leader of volunteers (such as myself) who want to help make a difference by sharing our opinions with legislators and elected officials.

And, as I was inquiring about advocacy, this Lead Ambassador peaked my interest when he started talking politics and explaining the different advocacy roles. That night, I signed up for ACS CAN! as soon as I got home. I met with the leaders of the network over breakfast one Saturday, and got hooked. I knew this was an area God was calling me to serve.

Today, I went to an ACS CAN! summit. It was my first real "thing" to do as an advocate. And now, I'm all jazzed up and excited about where we're going as an advocacy team with this fight against cancer. I'll have to get into the nitty gritty details some other time, if anybody cares. The summit today was so informative and I feel like I spent the whole morning in deep thought... I still need to clear my mind of it all so that I can sit down with a pen and paper and come up with a plan for how I'm going to contribute to the team. The nice thing about all of this is that I've learned SO MUCH from my past mistakes and will not forget what it means to be a volunteer, hehe.

I do not have cancer. But if I did? I'd want an organization like the American Cancer Society to have my back. I'm very proud to say that I'm a volunteer with them. I look forward to blogging about my adventures as an advocate on the ACS CAN team. While there's nothing we can do about the fact that our loved ones have cancer in their bodies, there is something we can do to help the fight it off. Find support in community. Get involved. Lead.