It's come up with a million and one varieties, a million and one cells to affect in a body, and a million and one ways to evade treatment!
Time was when it was possible to directly relate cancer in a patient to a specific causative agent or predisposition: a smoking habit; a family history of breast cancer; long-term exposure to a known carcinogen, possibly from working in a factory; etc. Today cancer doesn't need any of those excuses to strike anymore! People who haven't smoked a day in their life die of cancer. What do you do to predispose you to pancreatic cancer? or breast cancer for that matter?
Time was when we all knew what the carcinogens were and if we stayed away from them we were relatively sure to be cancer-free. Now every other day something else gets added to the list of carcinogens. It's practically impossible to live a normal life without being exposed to at least one cancer-causing agent each day!
We're told early detection is the only real solution, and yet a large proportion of detection/diagnosis is still incidental, happening only after treatment for other diseases has failed. This in particular is the case for people with no family history or known predisposition, and people in (3rd?) world countries like Nigeria.
Young ladies are getting elective mammograms every day now in some parts of the world because they have a family history of breast cancer. Older ladies are having elective hysterectomies because they have some predisposition to ovarian cancer- and those are the lucky ones! The ones who are educated enough and aware enough and possess the resources to actually do these procedures. That still leaves the rest of the population who still get blindsided by cancer everyday to deal with the debilitating sickness, the pain, the sheer agony of the sickness. It still leaves all of those families to watch their loved ones fade away before their eyes. We won't talk about how traumatic it must be for a woman of any age who takes preventive or even curative measures to lose such a intrinsic part of their anatomy, a portion that pretty much defines them as that gender. We won't talk about the fact that oftentimes even after these drastic measures they still lose the battle.
Oh how do we rationalize the loss of an able-bodied young man to cancer due to exposure to hitherto unknown or well-hidden carcinogens in the factory where he worked to put food on the table for his family? What if the carcinogens were already known but he could find no other work?
So even the handful who are willing and able to take preventive measures still do it at a huge cost- emotional, spiritual, financial, relational, psychological costs.
So it looks like any which way we all pay, right? In some form or the other we pay, whether first hand or 2nd hand we pay. Such a steep price we pay.
So here I am lending my voice to the cry for a cure for cancer. Can every nation put their money where their citizen's lives are going? Can every millionaire, every billionaire and every philanthropist put some real money into this? Can every religion talk about this on every holy day and consciously pray and fast about it? Can every research institute make this a priority? Can everybody do something concrete towards a cure when you read this? Please?
I acknowledge and I applaud all of the people who are in any way contributing to that search for a cure right now. I acknowledge the giant steps that have been made. I'm just saying I think we can do more if we all really just give it a moment of thought.
RIP Remi Lagos (aged 51), the latest to fall prey to the scourge. I didn't know her personally, but she contributed immensely to putting Nigeria on the fashion map.
This one is dedicated to my dad Professor Amos Babatunde Folarin (died aged 69); to our friend Bayo Muili (aged 44); to a lovely woman Mrs Ogundipe (aged 62); to Uncle Akintunde (50s); to Donna Summer (aged 63); to Yvette Wilson (aged 48); and to all the other people who've fallen, and those that are currently battling...
