Allison Cafe

Someone asked me yesterday why I got involved with the American Cancer Society as a volunteer. (thanks Liz!) I guess in all my enthusiasm for the cause I forgot to share why I am involved. There are several reasons. For starters, a very good friend of ours was diagnosed with thyroid cancer several years ago and is battling it again, but he is a survivor! And one of the most positive people that I know. He and his wife are also very involved with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and asked me if I would like to volunteer. I said “yes”!

My friend Amy and little me

Cancer has affected my life in other ways too. When I was a little girl my Aunt Kathy passed away from cervical cancer. She went into her doctor for her regular check up. She didn’t hear anything back from her doctor afterward, so she just assumed that all was fine. By the time they figured out that the Pap test was abnormal, almost a year later, the cancer had taken hold. I was too little to really remember everything, but what I do know is that I had an Aunt who loved me, and she sounds like such an amazing person that I know watches over me. I see the pain that cancer has brought to my family through her loss.

Again more recently, cancer took another loved one from my family, Amy. This time it was breast cancer. Growing up in Montana, we were far away from all of our family in Ohio. Fortunately, we had friends that were like family. In fact, I even called Amy’s grandparents Grandpa and Grandma even though they were not my actual grandparents. Amy was like an older sister. She had such a bright personality. A few years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She lost her battle and left behind 2 beautiful little girls and a loving husband and family that miss her more than I will ever know.

So why do I Relay? Why do I choose to put my energy into fighting a disease that has taken so much from my family and friends? Because that is what I must do. So that someone else doesn’t have to hear the words, “You have cancer.” So that another child doesn’t loose a parent. So that my friend doesn’t loose her husband. So that I feel like I am doing something about it. And because I think that is what Aunt Kathy and Amy would want me to do. To fight back.

A little interesting fact about the Pap test that I learned through my involvement with the ACS:

In the 1950’s, George Papaniocolau, M.D.,Ph.D., pioneered a test to detect cervical cancer – once the top killer of women. Dr. Papanicolaou was discouraged by his peers’ skepticism, but Charles Cameron, first director of the American Cancer Society’s research program, immediately saw the Pap test as a potential lifesaver for millions of women. He secured an astonishing 25 percent of the American Cancer Society’s budget to train Pap test technicians and publicly urged women to be tested. Today, 90 percent of American women follow the ACS’ cervical cancer screening guidelines and cervical cancer mortality rates have dropped by nearly 70 percent.

That is just one example of why every dollar that we raise is so important, it goes to fund important research and advocacy programs among many other things. Every single person can participate in the fight to end cancer in our lifetime. And to fund important programs that organizations such as the American Cancer Society (ACS) provide to cancer patients and survivors. Whether it is your time, money or talents that you volunteer, they all play an important part.

That’s why I Relay.

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