Thursday, May 31, 2012

Cancer

Yesterday I had a friend visiting, hadn't seen him for a year so it was good meeting up again. He has been through a very difficult few years, having lost his beautiful wife to cancer far too early, being left with a small kid. However, it seems like he's coping much better than I would have, and despite the tragedy, he is doing well in his life.

Today I got an invite, VIP mind you, to an opening of a new cancer center in Winterthur. Have been a little bit involved, and have visited once before when it was still being built.

Getting to Winterthur (like 30-40 mins with train from Zürich) and be there at 9.30 on a Saturday, is not my type of activity, but since I want to show my support, I will do it anyway. And I like the concept, of having an informal center for people who have cancer, where they can just hang out, or ask questions to professionals, or engage in an activity.

I just wonder sometimes, after all the donations and funding cancer research all over the world had for the last 50 years, are they never gonna find a cure?

2 comments:

Olzer said...

Total bitch of a disease.....and I my heart goes out to your friend....but I admire his strength, courage and determination to get on with his life. I do not think I could cope so well either.
On the disease front....it is definitely getting better. My Mother had cancer two years ago...breast cancer. Now with some forms of cancer, they can classify your "type" of cancer (and by this I don't mean where in the body it is...but how the particular cancer cell behaves)...and then treat this type of cancer with a specific cocktail of medication that best kills that type of cancer. This can mean, as in my Mothers case....where she did not have to have full high dose of chemotherapy...as in the past...when you had cancer, and they gave you the full strength...all the chemo drugs they had. So for my Mum...the side effects were less (she did not loose all her hair)...she was more mobile...less exhausted...etc etc. Also in London...radiotherapy has moved on where they can target the beam to the cancer area with even more precision....meaning that less good tissue is destroyed if any AND they can treat cancer in areas that was previously too dangerous...e.g areas of the brain. So this is positive.... As for a cure.....well I remember something about an article where they are developing a drug that you just ingest....and it encircles the cancer cell....killing it off. So....we are getting there. Personally I believe we are closer to a cure that we have ever been. So funding etc remains so so sooo important....

Witchbitch said...

As long as you don't get pancreas cancer...haven't heard of anybody surviving that particular type.