livingcured

This article put me into a bad mood. Maybe I'll be in that happy place someday, that reflective, 'look at what good cancer brought into my life' place. Some days I can actually admit to a few good things. But as I sit here, with my swollen arm, wondering how on earth we're going to afford a gestational surrogate and contemplating a visit with my Onc tomorrow...I'm just not there. I'm having a dark moment of the soul, feeling kinda pissed off and bitter. (The huge double chocolate brownie I just ate has thankfully improved my mood a bit...)

Maybe the happy thoughts expressed in the article are for cancer survivors who are older?

(An aside, I actually sat next to the author of this article on a plane a few years ago. She would not stop talking about herself and it made for a very draining hour.)

As you may have noted from my previous posts, I had the opportunity to visit Washington DC with the Lance Armstrong Foundation and lobby our federal Representatives to increase support for cancer research and care. We, at the time of writing, have failed. As it stands, we didn't get even close to what we had asked, we being a consortium of cancer advocacy groups, not just the LAF.

I don't know if one could effectively pigeon-hole my politics, but at its very core, I do believe that government has the responsibility to address the country's number one killer and take up activities, such as basic research, that cannot be as effectively managed by the private sector.

The LAF is hosting two presidential debates next month, one for each major political party. The candidates will be asked to answer the 'Cancer Question' as Lance calls it. I really like what the LAF is doing, agitating and recreating the sense of urgency that we had 40+ years ago when the War on Cancer was declared.

More on the LIVESTRONG Presidential Cancer Forum here.