Cancer Speech

Amanda Howson

24^th April 2005

Cancer Speech:

“Welcome to the Planet.  Welcome to existence.  Everyone’s here.  Everyone’s here.  Everybody watches you now.  Everybody waits for you now.  What happens next?  What happens next?”

Imagine, if you will, you’re at a hospital.  Any hospital.  You’re sitting in the waiting room waiting for the doctor to call you in.  You’ve seen this room far too many times this week.  You’ve been in for countless tests and now they’ve called you in to tell you the results.  You know it has to be bad news because if it was good they would have told you on the phone.  They called you in case you couldn’t handle the news.  You glance over at the door and think about running away.  It’s better if you don’t know the truth, or is it worse? You sit there, too afraid to make a move.  That’s when the door opens and they call your name.  You walk down the hall behind the nurse.  You don’t like hospitals.  The smell gets to you.  It’s too clean.  The irony of hospitals throws you every time.  In one room someone could be giving birth or giggling over their newborn child, and in the next a wife could be crying next to her husband while he whispers that he loves her with his very last breath.  You shake off your thoughts as you finally reach your doctor’s office.  He’s sitting behind his desk and stands up to shake your hand and tells you to take a seat.  He tells you that he’s sorry that you had to come out all this way again and that he’s got your test results back.  Unfortunately, the results turned out bad and he informs you that you have cancer.

Every year millions of people are diagnosed with cancer. The statistics are startling.  Out of every adult living with cancer, 62% will still be alive in the next five years.  Look around at your friends, classmates, teachers, and family.  One in every three people will be diagnosed with cancer.  It could be you, even though we always think that something like this could never touch our lives, it does.  It has touched mine in so many ways.

While my family and I lived here from 1996 to 2001, we got news that my grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was due for radiation therapy and chemotherapy for the next year or so.  At hearing this, my family and I mentally prepared ourselves for the worst.  We moved back to the United States in 2001 and my grandfather was declared cancer free, or so it seemed.  However, we found out that the cancer had come back and was spreading to his hip.  Therapy was scheduled for him, once again, however, this time, the effects hit him harder.  In one week he was admitted into the hospital about three times due to complications with illnesses that he was battling along with the chemotherapy.  One morning, his life was claimed and he passed away.  Instead of mourning my loss, I like to celebrate his life and think of all the happy memories I shared with him.  The only thing I regret about his passing is that I didn’t know him as well as I wished I did.

In September of 2003, my father received a phone call from our best friends, living in Vietnam, informing us that their daughter had been diagnosed with brain cancer.  At the time she was eight years old and the girl whom I considered my younger sister, bonded to me by every tie of sisterhood, except blood.  Our families had met in 1996 when we were both living in Guangzhou.  Our parents became best friends and Chloe and I were pulling each other’s hair out and fighting over crayons like siblings.  We had always shared the bonds of sisterhood and when we both started going to school at Utahloy, I was always looking out for her.  The news of her cancer devastated me.  I went to school and broke down crying in the hallways because I didn’t know what else to do.  My baby sister was going through Radiation and Chemotherapy and I wasn’t there to be with her.  I kept hearing things about her losing weight, due to the effects of chemotherapy, and I could just picture her getting smaller and smaller.  She had won her battle with the cancer, and when I saw her in February for the first time since 2001, she was cancer free and living life with the same childlike enthusiasm she had always had.  Chloe became my hero.

Recently, we received another phone call from our friends informing us that Chloe’s mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  This news hit me hard and the only way to describe the feelings I felt at the time would be to compare them to those of a domino after its been pushed down and all the rest of the dominos are forced to fall with it.  I was devastated and helpless.  The woman that I had always considered my second mother had been diagnosed with cancer.  Fortunately, she had found the cancer in an early stage and they were able to remove the cancer before it spread.  Still, it struck fear into the hearts of the people near her and my mother flew to Singapore to be with her best friend during her surgery.

“Life is not what I thought it was twenty-four hours ago… and I’m not who I thought I was twenty-four hours ago.”

When cancer touches your life, nothing seems real.  In twenty-four hours your life could change.  Cancer changes lives, whether those changes are good or bad.  Lance Armstrong once said, “Without cancer, I wouldn’t have won the Tour de France.”  Everyone faces this battle.  Everyone faces the battle with cancer.  Cancer will or has touched our lives in some way or another.  Maybe we can help find a cure for it.  Maybe we can’t, but we could at least try.  It never hurts to try.

As part of a CAS project I want to fundraise a goal of 8,000 RMB for the Lance Armstrong Foundation in order to help find the cure for something that has affected my life and so many others around me.  We all need to give a little bit to show that we care.  Go back to that image that I painted in your heads when I first stood in front of you.  Don’t you think that that person sitting in the doctor’s office deserves some support?  Deserves the chance to live?  Deserves the chance to fight?  I do.  Because without cancer foundations and people who care about finding a cure Chloe wouldn’t have had her chance to fight.  When it comes down to it, 8,000 RMB isn’t a lot in an economy that speaks the language of billions and hundreds of billions, but it’s enough to show that we care and that we want to help.  Our 8,000 RMB could save a life.

So please, give a little bit. 

Comments

[Kim Gage]

Amanda -

I too know Chloe and her Mom. Thank you for writing this speech and expressing your sentiments so deeply. It would be my privilege to donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation on your and their behalf. Consider it done.

[Karen]

The 'cheese toastie' family came into my life in 1998 & even though they tried to avoid having an Aussie's bad influence on their little Chloester, she was stuck with me in Preschool & Kindie. Though she only picked up a few Aussie habits from me, I am forever touched by Chloe & her family, their strength, their determination, their love of life. The Lance Armstrong Foundation will assist families like Chloe's, preserve their love of life.

[Sekolah]

I just found your blog while researching how to crtaee a button and came across your sons story. I just wanted to share that my brother was diagnosed with ALL when he was 18 months old. He also went through many medical treatments such as chemo, radiaiton and marrow transplants but he is a healthy 30 year old man today! I will be praying for your son and your family during this trying time!

[Tamotu]

havent got all the way though toayds Daily Dimmick video as it keeps making me cry about 10 seconds in. I think the worst thing of all when Mum was told she was going to die but they'd have a go (5% survival rate from her bowel cancer but we Ukranian girls are made of tough stuff so of course she survived!) and through the surgeries and treatment was convincing Mum that she WOULD live and not to t ake her own life (i intercepted a couple of attempts and talked her out of a couple more) while the thoughts in my head were saying shes going to die you know no matter what you say and do this is futile let her go .. but please dont die. please dont die . She didnt and continues to annoy, love and appreciate me all in one to this day xxxx

[Gintaras]

If it is not pre-existing (You will get tested for nraely everything) they will pay for any treatment you need. If you lie on any medical forms, they are going to discharge you for lying and enlisting under false pretenses. Just be honest and while it is good for you to think about your future, I am going to recommend a quote to you .carpe diem. Sieze the day, don't focus as much on the what-if's in life. I wish you and your mom the best.