-
Image courtesy of scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
With October comes the delightful colors of fall, the eerie orange and black of Halloween, and pink—the color of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In honor of this initiative, I will be posting varied perspectives on global cancer care and control—insightful thoughts garnered while attending the 2012 World Cancer Congress in Montreal, Canada.
To kick off this series, I present…
The Stealth Killer
“Cancer is a serial killer, left to roam through the developing world unchallenged,” a chilling statement made by Princess Dina Mired of Jordan.
Like a serial killer, cancer is stealthy. Cancer can spread silently … undetected … with symptoms sometimes lying dormant for months, years, or even decades.
Like misery, cancer loves company. Left untreated, a tumor can ravage the body, spreading to multiple organs with the goal of invasion and occupation.
Cancer loves poor lifestyle habits. This intruder thrives on cigarette smoking, unhealthy diets, obesity, alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity. Remove these risk factors and the happier your body will be.
How do we conquer this stealthy killer?
The quickest way to “more birthdays”, a movement created by the American Cancer Society, is to:
- Prevent avoidable cancers
- Treat cancers that are treatable and curable
- Provide state-of-the art care and pain control to ALL those in need, making it accessible to not only the privileged few, but the uninsured minorities
- Increase cancer advocacy and education
- Create lasting partnerships with civil society organizations, foundations, and public figures
We can’t simply treat our way out of cancer; prevention is a key part of the solution.
Transformed mindsets
The Bible speaks of “being transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
We need to augment our understanding of the global cancer burden and in so doing transform how we combat this disease. Cancer is not a death sentence. Let’s adopt a positive mindset. Let’s be proactive about our health. Let’s continually pray for health and healing. Let’s advocate and educate on behalf of those who can’t. Let’s be informed and pray against genetic predispositions to cancer.
Through grassroots activism and collective action, dare to believe that cancer can be conquered in our lifetime.
Grow yourself through further reading:
- American Cancer Society: Breast Cancer
- National Cancer Institute: Breast Cancer
- I’m going Pink this October! Are you?
Copyright © 2012 Uwana.
