As most of you know, I lost my mom (Deborah Bailes) in February of 2019 to lung cancer. Being so young - just 58 years old - and otherwise healthy, the most difficult thing about this loss was that it feels like she never even had a chance...
She had no typical lung cancer symptoms at first; her cancer was actually detected in early October of 2018 during a scan related to her gallbladder. And after it was discovered, the actual diagnosis process took months. Multiple doctors, scans and biopsies were involved, along with way too much wasted time waiting for appointments and then test results. All the while, treatment hadn't started and her disease was progressing...
By February 1st when she finally received an official diagnosis, she was too sick and weak for treatment. Against the doctor's recommedations, she had a round of chemo anyway. Our thought was that if the cancer was going to win either way, we had to at least try to slow it down. So we tried. And it obviously didn't work. And that's why I got involved with LUNG FORCE!
When you join the American Lung Association and LUNG FORCE, you support research that will lead to earlier detection and more personalized treatments so that everyone has a fighting chance.
