Fight Cancer, Celebrate Life

Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear.

Uttered by President Snow of the Hunger Games series, these words reverberate a remarkable sound of triumph over an encompassing adversity.

It's undeniable that life narrates of unending battles that humans ought to face and overcome.

Include cancer on the list. This has been known as a deadly disease that the mere mention of the word is feared and stings into the mind, creating undesirable thoughts of struggle, of loss, of mourning, or simply of death.

After a review in January 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO), through their webpage www.who.int, listed cancer as the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 7.6 million deaths in 2008 and projected to continue rising up to an estimated 12.1 million deaths in 2030.

These figures, however, should not be seen as a hopeless picture of loss, but rather as a motivation to take steps towards significantly reducing these estimates through positive measures.

Yet admittedly, when one is diagnosed with cancer, one flees from instead of fights the illness. Flight is a way of embracing the disease with grief and surrendering to it while counting the days left as life takes its final bow. Fighting, on the other hand, is clinging to the hope that surpasses the fear of death, accepting the illness, and making sure to live the unfolding days with no regrets.

This is why the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.-Eduardo J. Aboitiz Cancer Center (RAFI-EJACC) provides cancer assistance for early detection (such as mammogram, biopsy, and other tumor markers), surgical assistance for early stages of cancer, and patient follow-up for post operative patients.

The battle against cancer should not be a struggle for death but should be a struggle for life. Although the disease cripples one physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and even financially, not fighting it with a dose of hope is raising the white flag.

Fighting cancer with positivity may be easier said than done, but those who know that there are people who battle with them can be victors. One can always trust and lean on family and friends during these startling times.

WHO states that a significant proportion of cancers can be cured by surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy, especially if they are detected early.

One’s part is to stay optimistic despite the adversity, for this too, shall pass.

It’s about time to dare to claim healing, to dare to choose to be joyful, to dare to celebrate life.

                                          

I wrote this article while having my internship at Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.