[truportodfa]

I just found out that my cousin has stage 4 cancer in her liver and the prognosis is poor...3-4 months max. I had a co-worker die in the past year of cancer. I know of 4 others with terminal cancer. Is it just me, or is this disease as bad as it ever was?

I support and participate in the Relay for Life every year, as well as other fund raisers, but sometimes I wonder for what? Advances have been made in early to mid stage cancer, but I want a magic laser beam that will get rid of the cancer...zap, it's gone, now go on with your life. Unfortunately, it's still not that easy, especially in advanced stages. Do we need a new "war on cancer", and have we ever had one? And why are prevention/detection not a priority? Shouldn't more employers be offering free cancer screening? Many don't get screened because cancer is the last thing they think could strike them; it's something that only afflicts other people. "I'd rather spend that money on something I can really use" is the thought. If my cousin would have been screened for cancer a year ago, she may have been able to fight it.

We can send a man to the moon, we can carry on a conversation with someone in Denmark while sitting on a toilet in the Bronx, we can download a video through the air...no wires, no cords. We can build an underground subway network A CENTURY AGO, yet so many are still dying of cancer today.

I'm just frustrated. I don't want to lose another loved one to this insidious cancer.

I urge everyone reading this to get checked for cancer, even if there are no warning signs. Cancer did not run in my cousin's family.