Survivors

Jack's school is participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. They asked the children to ask for donations & to send in pictures of family & friends that they would like to honor on their picture collage wall. It made me think about how cancer affects so many people, just in our family. In these pictures are me, my mom, my grandmother, Bret's mom, and Chloe. All of us (yes, even Chloe) are cancer survivors. We wanted Jack in the pictures, too! My grandmother & I are thyroid cancer survivors (I am actually a two-time survivor), my mom is a lymphoma survivor, and Bret's mom is a breast cancer survivor. My grandmother had thyroid cancer almost 40 years ago. My mom & I found out the same day that we both had cancer, just different cancers, in 2003. Bret's mom found out almost exactly a year later after Mom & I were diagnosed. Chloe just had a cancerous tumor removed this past February. So, in my family, there are 3 generations of cancer survivors. I think that's pretty cool! Not cool that we all had cancer, but very cool that we all survived! Very cool that Bret's mom survived too! Not cool that Bret's sister, Lisa was just diagnosed with breast cancer. She just had surgery & is about to start her treatments. Since we all have had 100% success beating our cancers, I know that Lisa will too! Just stop & think about how many people that you know of that are survivors, or currently going through treatment. Hopefully in my lifetime, a cure for cancer will be found so our children will never have to fight it!