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Why I Relay

This is my story about why I relay. I wrote it because I was inspired by other stories along the same lines and I feel very passionate about the content of this story.

I relay because I'm mad. I'm mad at a disease that has taken away so many good people, people that I love.

I've known about cancer since I was a little girl of five years old. I remember seeing the adults in my life crying and devastated by this cancer thing. At five, the only thing I really understood was that cancer could take my grandma away from me, though no one ever specifically said that cancer could kill my grandma, I knew that when grandparents got really sick like my grandma was, they didn't come back.

My grandma did. My grandma fought breast cancer and won. Then again my grandma is as tough as nails. Don't believe me? I know grown men that are terrified of my grandma, just ask my uncles. Really it's not that surprising that she kicked cancer's butt, at five years old I truly believe that cancer was scared of her too.

The next time I remember cancer was when it took skin from my grandpa. By then I was old enough to understand the seriousness of cancer, but I knew with the absolute confidence of youth that he would be fine. They took the skin and he endured the radiation and I was right, he was fine.

Cancer wasn't done in my life not by a long shot. My grandma had to have her second breast removed because of cancer. Thankfully this time she didn't need the chemo and radiation, the mastectomy was enough.

Now having so much cancer in my family has made me cautious. I've been performing self exams since I got boobs. At the age of 21, I felt a lump; I immediately went and saw my doctor. She said it was probably nothing, but because of my family history she got me in for a mammogram. It wasn't cancer, but I still make sure that I'm checked out. I'm also the first one to harass the women in my family about whether they've been checked out too.

I was 25 when the doctors diagnosed my grandpa with lung cancer. I was terrified. The mass was found during an X-ray for pneumonia. It was inoperable, but the doctors hoped to shrink it with radiation. The type of lung cancer he had was not the kind caused by smoking though at some point grandpa blamed the cigarettes he quit smoking 40 years previously.

The doctors gave him a time limit but Grandpa didn't care he continued to make plans for the future. He made plans with my daughter and I for when we came home for Easter Break. He made plans to go camping all summer with his family and friends. I lived away from home, but my daily phone calls were all filled with my grandpa's status. Grandpa struggled through the radiation this time and the pneumonia didn't help. His lungs would fill with fluids and they had to give him medications that essentially dehydrated him.

When I came home that year for Christmas my grandpa was sitting on the couch. He'd lost weight. His skin was dry and paper thin. For the first time in my life I thought if I hugged him I would hurt him. It was then that I knew that this was the cancer that would take my grandpa away from me. I never got to experience the plans that grandpa made for April or for the summer. I got the call less then a month after Christmas holidays. Cancer claimed my grandpa.

Why does this make me mad? Why do I hate cancer so much?
Because all my life I was my grandpa's girl. He was my male role model. I spent many weekends and vacations with my grandparents and I was my grandpa's shadow. I was his good luck charm when he played cards. He was a strong, caring man. He was charming and had an excellent sense of humor and cancer stole him from me.

Why do I relay?
I relay so that no one else has to have the greatest man in their life stolen by this disease.
I relay so that one day my daughter can refer to cancer as a thing of the past not something she has to worry about.
I relay so that one day no one will have to hear the words "You have cancer."
I relay because I'm mad and this is my way to fight back against cancer.

 

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