Annual Screening

With Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation in the news so much recently, and the topic weighing heavily on my heart, I figured now would be the perfect time to talk about this.

Cancer. Probably one of the most despised six letter words in the English dictionary.

I can’t explain to you the number of times I’ve started a blog post on the ugly and scary word that is Cancer. Just in the past few months we’ve had so many stories hit close to home, unfortunately, with deaths because of  women-dominant cancers, like breast cancer.

If you know me personally, and talk to me regularly, you are probably well aware that lately this has been my thing — to convince my loved ones to get their annual visit in for screening.

A few family friends have lost their lives to breast cancer just recently. The mother of one of my brother’s friends (and college roommate) passed away just a few short months after diagnosis a few months ago of a woman-dominant cancer. My cousins’ friend (a teenager) passed away early January 2011 from cancer just a few weeks away after her father passed away of a different cancer.

Time and again, we are reminded how fragile life is.

Everyone knows someone effected by cancer. I’d be surprised to hear from someone isn’t.

I urge you to get regular screening. Early detection is the best chance for a treatment and/or a cure! I can’t stress it enough. If you are an adult female, go get your annual mammogram and get your annual GYN visit in. Take your (female)  loved ones too. You could, in all seriousness, be saving a life. So many things of this nature can be treated and cured IF they are caught early enough!

The momentary discomfort, in hindsight, will be worth it, won’t it? YOU are worth it!
If not for yourself, go for your loved ones. You could be saving them the heartache too.

While it would be nice to not have to worry about such things, the reality is we do. Who knows, maybe in our lifetime, research will go far enough to make this horrendous disease that is cancer something of the past. That would be something, wouldn’t it?