I never knew Teresa, but the gentleman who sold me her house was her colleague, and lab partner. An amazing man. And she, as I learned (and you will, too), was an amazing woman. I have never met Chris in person, although we’ve been friends (and practically neighbors) since 2002, when my husband and I moved into her house. It is because of Teresa and Ellen that I have the disdain of breast cancer that I do. Not only them, of course.
It feels like – it feels like cancer is like “The Blob”, doesn’t it? It feels like every time you try to plug one hole, it seeps in and pops up someplace else. On an anatomical/physiological level, but also in the sheer numbers of people it affects. I know I can’t be the only one who feels like every time you turn around, someone you know, or someone you know knows someone else who was recently diagnosed. And, frankly, it ticks me off. I have never hated anything in my life, but I hate this. I’m angry. And it’s motivated me. I never really thought about being angry, because it takes a lot to make me angry. What I have found, though, is that anger is extremely tiring. It just sucks the life out of you, you know? So I liken it to trying to find some productive use for it, like we have been trying to find a use for cow poo and kudzu in the biofuel arena. How do I take this destructive force an change it, channel it, to a positive outcome?
And then it hit me. I’m a researcher. It’s fitting, because that’s my nature anyway, so it’s not surprising that’s what I do for a living. A friend once told me I didn’t “need to know everything about everything.” Actually, that’s not true. I ask a lot of questions – and I encourage everyone else to do the same. Keep the doors open. All of them. If enough of us go after it, we can conquer it. I have no doubt. It will take numbers and brain power and patience. I am only me, and I have the brain, and, I’m doing my best to learn the patience part.
There is so much to do – aside from the science, it’s finding support, cultivating relationships, fostering friendships and progress through knowledge.
If we all band together, we can eradicate this. I am confident of that. I have to be. And as for the “C” word, it’ll be history. It has to be.
