The C word

For the third time this week I've heard the C word.

I really wish we could banish it from our vocabulary. Cancer. It is a terrible word - awful word and one that does not seem to want to go away. It does not care who it strikes. My Aunt died from it a few years ago - my other Aunt is fighting for her life. My best friend's mother just passed away this week from cancer and two other folks in my life have been diagnosed.

I do not know what do say. I just am numb.

We have spent so much money on research and we still have been unable to get rid of the disease. We have made great strides in detection and treatment - but we have not eliminated it.

What are we doing in our lives - to our bodies - to our workplaces - to our environment that fosters the cancer to thrive? Have we altered our condition - food with preservatives, cleaning our homes with chemicals or breathing toxins? Have we done this to ourselves?

I wish I were a scientist. I wish I had the ability to cure the disease. I wish I could help those individuals living with cancer. I wish I could do something - anything - to fix these people in my life.....but I can't and that just stinks.