It was December 24, 2004. I will always remember this day and so will my husband. They told me I have Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Go ahead and Google it. This is a rare and deadly type of breast cancer with a 2% 5 year survival rate.
I remember feeling confused. How could just one bad cell in such a healthy body make such a mess and ruin everything. But I didn't cry. Instead, logical me began to analyze the situation.
I'm 48 years old, I have a great family, both my children are in university and they are the kind that any parent would be proud of. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada is without a doubt the best country in the world. I'm also a very successful business woman and consequently financially well off. To sum it up, I've achieved everything I wanted in my life and hey, mistakes I've made some but as Sinatra said, "Too few to remember!" Result: I've had more than my share of positive experiences in this life and if I have to go now there will be no sorrow. Of course, I will deeply miss my family and friends and regret not seeing my children graduate from university as well as miss out on the chance to hold my grand children in my arms and spoil them like there's no tomorrow! Moreover, I will leave this world without seeing what I've always dreamed about: Peace on Earth.
In short, the first six months of 2005 turned out to be a nightmarish rollercoaster ride: physically and emotionally - any cancer patient will understand what I'm talking about and for the rest, I hope that you will never have to deal with it.
Now it's December 2007 and I'm reaching my 3rd anniversary of wellness. During these 3 years I've learned a lot. I have embraced humility, I have become less arrogant and more modest and more than that I've learned that there is a kind and compassionate community of good people out there that want to help each other. During the beginning of this ordeal I searched the Internet and found that there are thousands and thousands of people that don't ask you what religion you practice, what race you are, what political beliefs you follow or even what your name is! No, you can go online as VancouverAngel or StillAlive and no one cares what your real last name is or where you're from because they want to help you. I even came across people that that didn't have cancer. That's right, someone would ask a question and these people would go and research it for you. No matter how busy their lives were, they cared for you even without knowing you! I have to tell you that this experience made me proud to be a human being, it gave me hope and pride to know that all types of people care regardless of their personal situation.
During this journey I also learned that this kind of human decency and compassion is the fuel that drives thousands of people each year to walk, run, fundraise or do whatever they can to help end cancer. But unfortunately, I believe many of us are ignoring a much bigger Cancer in this world and this Cancer is not genetic nor chemically induced. It will in fact ruin everything and everybody in the end one way or another. It's also not geographically isolated because I've seen it sprout in so many places in the past and in the future: Germany, Russia, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Darfur to name a few. Perhaps most disconcerting is the fact this Cancer kills within seconds and most victims die without being given the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones.
So I'm going to go ahead and say it: why don't we care for these people? These people, like me, were put in a terrible situation that they had virtually no control over. The only difference is that their deaths came to them suddenly and without warning. Unlike me, they were not given the option of medical treatments that could help them possibly escape. So, with this in mind, why don't we get together and say NO to any war? Even if it's not our own children who are getting killed unnecessarily as a Canadian soldier, American Soldier, Iraqi teenager or a helpless child in Africa – are we just going to bank on our good fortune and ignore their misfortune? If we do so, are we not taking part in spreading this disease rather than stopping it? Where is the fuel to help these deserving people? But you see, I'm sure that we really do care and that lack of the necessary tools or an overwhelming intimidation by not so like minded people may force us to think that any effort against war is a waste of time. We have all said it, I'm sure: I'm just one person, how can I do anything to change the world? Well let me tell you, during my fight against my own Cancer I came to realize that so much of the advice that people were giving me was worthless and yet the very fact that they put so much work into giving me something that they thought would help my situation really did warm my aching heart. Just knowing that a stranger would reach out to me with nothing but sincere love and best wishes put a smile on my face and that was enough to give me the energy to stand on my feet when chemotherapy was killing my cancer cells and so many of my healthy cells as well.
I'm an immigrant who came to Canada 22 years ago. I love this country and sincerely love Canadian people because they have made this country this way. I have found that Canadians are also highly regarded outside of Canada. This year I had a chance to visit Europe and Africa and I found that Canadians are welcome almost everywhere because people around the world see us as peacekeepers rather than aggressors. Indeed, we have been blessed with the chance to live in this country and we have the power to unite as the voice of all good people in this world that have one wish in common: Peace on Earth.
We may not be alive to see "Peace on Earth" during our lifetime but we must ask for it. I cannot stress this enough, we must at least fight for it while we're here, to make it easier on our children and our grandchildren.
You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I am not the only one.
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