World Cancer Day

Today is World Cancer Day.  Already this week I have received more than a dozen chain emails memorializing World Cancer Day and urging me to forward the burning candle to everyone I know to honor those affected by the disease.

I have also been urged to update my Facebook status by Stand Up 2 Cancer.

But what is going to make a difference this year and in the future is not email messages or Facebook status updates.  It is action.  Action on a grand scale.  So this year I urge you to become involved.  Become an advocate, make your voice heard by those who make decisions about research and healthcare dollars. Read yesterday's post and tell someone in power that we need more options for metastatic cancer, not fewer.  Donate to an organization that supports patients or supports research and education.

Cancer is becoming a global epidemic.  One of every two men and one of every three women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime.  If cancer has not touched you, it has touched the life of someone you know.

If you need more reasons please read Susan G. Komen for the Cure founder Ambassador Nancy Brinker's excellent blog Cancer Control Can't Wait:

"World Cancer Day will, we hope, set the stage for more meaningful work on cancer control on a global scale.  As Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control for the World Health Organization, and as a breast cancer survivor and 30-year advocate to end breast cancer, I know too well the pain and devastation of this disease.  I’ve seen it in my own family, in my sister who died of breast cancer 30 years ago.  And I’ve seen it all too painfully in the faces of members of our global family — women dying in undeveloped countries of cancers that might have been easily treated in the West.
Cancer is the leading cause of death around the world, killing more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.  The World Health Organization estimates that, without appropriate intervention, 84 million people will die from cancer between 2005 and 2015. While the emotional impact of losing a loved one to cancer is immeasurable, the economic impact of premature death caused by cancer is measurable, and it is devastating.  A recent study found that 25 nations are losing more than 2 percent of their GDP to deaths and disability caused by cancer. These figures are only for the deaths that can be attributed directly to cancer.  Many deaths each year go unreported, because many countries lack cancer registries." READ MORE