My incredible mum, Annette, lost her battle with stage 4 lung cancer in April this year. I’ll be walking in memory of my mum to Shine a Light on lung cancer and to spread the message that anyone can get it, not just smokers.
My mum never smoked. She kept herself extremely fit and healthy. She was working out at the gym two weeks before her diagnosis.
All the usual tell-tale signs and symptoms you’d expect with lung cancer just weren’t there. No fatigue, no shortness of breath, not even a cough. Yet by the time she was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer, it had already spread to her bones and liver. Everything changed in an instant.
I’ve heard too many stories of healthy men and women being told they have stage 4 lung cancer after the sudden onset of pain in their back, hip or shoulders.
I was inspired to become a fundraiser due to the lack of government funding available for lung cancer research, especially compared to other cancers. If it wasn’t for recent developments in treatment, my mum would not have lived as long as she did. If treatments can continue to progress, we can continue to have better outcomes for people diagnosed with lung cancer … and, who knows, maybe even a cure.
I hope we can get to a stage where stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer can have a prognosis of 10-plus years. I’d also like to see improvements in screening for lung cancer, especially if it runs in the family.
And there is still too much stigma associated with the disease. We need to end this stigma so that lung cancer can be treated with the same level of respect, compassion and funding as other cancers. After all, it kills more people than any other cancer each year.