Thursday, September 25, 2008

Died young

In the past day I learned that two of my friends with cancer died this week. Both were a little younger than me and struck with the disease while still in school.

One of them I met while I was getting treatment for my first recurrence, two years after my own initial diagnosis. She had a very similar medical history and even shared the same surgeon and oncologist. I tried to offer some encouragement and advice as she began her own battle. Unfortunately she had more trouble with the treatment and her cancer was more aggressive.

The other I met earlier this year through a support group for young adults with cancer. He had a rough time with repeated and painful metastases, but kept fighting, organized the support group, and enrolled in graduate school.


They say that people with cancer are living longer and that cancer is becoming a manageable long-term disease like diabetes. But with the recent loss of these two friends and the high profile loss of Tony Snow and Randy Pausch, it's apparent that cancer is still efficient at dishing out tragedy.

2 comments:

Kairol Rosenthal said...

One thing that sucks about becoming close to people with cancer is the thing that sucks about cancer in general: some of us die. I just finished writing a book about young adult cancer due out early 2009. It is packed with stories about 20 and 30-somethings with cancer and in the process of writing it, I have become really close to a lot of them, some of whom have died. I'm sorry to read about your friends and hope that you are hanging in. I'm excited to have found your blog. Check mine out too!

Best,

Kairol

Kairol Rosenthal
Everything Changes: The Insider's Guide To Cancer in Your 20's and 30's

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