Well it's November again....once again there is very little support on the TV or in the media. I was supposed to be on Daybreak but my slot was pulled the night before and replaced with an article on the 'return of the white stiletto' featuring one of those girls from TOWIE!
Unbelievable....
There was however some mention of lung cancer awareness month with a lady called Alison and Jenny Frost, neither of who'm were wearing their white supporters ribbons as I would have been. There was no mention of the struggle us 'incurable' patients face or the fact that more research and funding for drugs is needed to give us a chance of life. The main thing again - according to the 'expert' they interviewed was how it is related to smoking!!!!! 9/10 cases he said were caused by smoking and that Alison (who didn't smoke) was an exception I am very please for Alison that she was lucky enough to be caught early at stage 1 and didn't need any adjuvent chemo, that is the 'exception'. The majority of us are not that lucky, especially if we are under 50 and have never smoked! We are the ones who are often dismissed as 'worrying about nothing' or 'its all in your head' like a story of a young 36 year old lady that I read today with an array of lung cancer symptoms that no one put together, she is now stage 4 with mets to brain, liver and bones! How could any of us have lung cancer?? Hello....we have...if only someone would have listened!
The expert on Daybreak also said that the rise in women with lung cancer is due to the increase in women taking up smoking in the 60's and 70's????? I'm sorry but even though I was born in the 60's I don't think I was at an age to start smoking! The women who have lung cancer that I have now met (and yes there are quite a few) are in the 30's and 40's some were not even born (or were very young) when this 'smoking habit in women' started! To cap it off, non of us have ever smoked! Explain that one please Mr Expert!
I may upset people with the next bit I'm going to write, but I'm writing it anyway..... We went to a wedding reception on Friday night just gone and to be honest I couldn't believe how many of my friends and other young women/people were 'nipping outside to smoke' throughout the night!
There I am, the one with lung cancer, the one with the 'death sentence' the one who has never smoked. There they are with such little regard to there lives and their health. It makes me angry and sad. They can do something about the risks they face with their health and try and prevent it, but they choose not to. I hope none of them are unlucky enough to find the selves in my position.
The thing is, they would never be in my position if they get lung cancer and carry on smoking, I am doing well because I was fit and healthy and I never smoked. Smokers who get Lung Cancer wouldn't be able to have the same drugs as me (they don't work if you smoke!) and wouldn't have the same chances of live after the fact as me ( treatment doesn't work as well in smokers). Small cell lung cancer (the one most smokers get) is far more aggressive, giving you 'weeks' as opposed to 'months'. If any of my friends who continue to smoke are reading this, please stop...SMOKING KILLS - FACT and its not just lung cancer you are putting yourselves at risk of getting! The choice is yours...would you stand in front of a bullet? I doubt it..so why are you smoking?
