Shine a Light on Lung Cancer

This Thursday, from 7-9:00 p.m. we will join survivors and supporters at our office to bring some awareness to lung cancer and the facts of the disease. For example...

• Lung cancer has only a 15% survival rate for patients 5 years out of treatment;
• 15% of newly diagnosed lung cancer patients have never smoked;
• 50% of newly diagnosed lung cancer patients are former smokers - some having quit decades ago;
• Lung cancer will claim more lives this year than colon, prostate and breast cancers combined;
• Lung cancer will kill three times as many men than prostate cancer and almost two times as many women than breast cancer this year;
• Only 16% of lung cancers are diagnosed in the earliest and most curable stage.

 And here is the saddest statistic of all:

Lung cancer is the least funded in dollars per death of the four major cancers. 

(These facts were provided by the quiz offered here)

There is a terrible attitude out there that people who smoke and later develop lung cancer "have it coming" or are just "getting what they deserve." But the majority of people who suffer from it, as the facts above illustrate, either quit smoking before developing cancer or never smoked at all. It's time to recognize that lung cancer is not reserved just for people who knowingly assume the risk of cancer by lighting up. And even if it was... why does that matter? It's a deadly disease, and we should be trying to find out how to end it. Let's raise awareness, and Shine a Light on Lung Cancer.

The specific goals of the vigil, as stated on the official website, are as follows:

• Empowering patients, survivors and those at risk with information, hope, and support to improve outcomes and quality of life.
• Educating and mobilizing Americans to gain a better understanding, and bring attention and support for the lung cancer movement.
• Engaging key decision makers, policy leaders, media, and the medical community, securing multiple millions in public health dollars for lung cancer research.
• Honoring and memorializing loved ones. 

We hope you'll join us Thursday! For more information about the vigil or for directions to our office, please call Jessica Minton at 479-361-5847.