Today, I ran into a junior college chum from way, (way), back and found out that she, her sister-in-law, and another classmate were all cancer survivors. And although it had been three years since her diagnosis, when I looked back after leaving her, I saw that her eyes were red. "I don't think about it," she had kept saying when I tried to ask her about her cancer journey.
Also today, I saw the case worker who was handling my arbitration with the insurance company. She said that cancer is 'not that common'. When I told her that it strikes 30% of Singaporeans, she said that that proved it was not that common.
But taking my own experience, I believe that 1 degree of separation is getting significantly narrow. Perhaps it is my age - once you hit the big 4-0, cancer does tend to make its presence felt. Your risk of contracting the disease increases.
I have never, in my entire life, felt old. In fact, I am trying to get Bryan Adam's song, Eighteen Till I Die, put on my mobile phone as the ring tone. Today, however, I actually felt old. I was walking around a mall, and everyone there (almost) was younger than I. I looked at the trendy young girls, and found myself thinking,"Gee, where did the time go?"
I feel even older when so many people I know have cancer. When someone tells me that cancer is uncommon, it is more than just plain ignorance. It is also the foolishness of youth talking. With my diagnosis, I have crossed the line. I am on the other side of the hill now.
We know that the incidence of cancer is rising, just as we know that more people are being diagnosed at a younger age. Yet cancer is more than a disease of age - it is also a disease of lifestyle and it is reaching its frightening claws out to more and younger people, as Singaporeans become affluent. Every time I read in the papers about a cry for more fine dining restaurants, I think: all that butter and cream - killer food! But with affluence, such indulgent eating will become the norm and, more than likely, the incidence of cancer.
My point is this: cancer survivors are the new marginalised. The outcry for the aged, the unemployed, the physically challenged started some years ago, and is still going on. Singapporeans have a hard time taking a communal view of things - we are a 'me and mine first' type of society. As long as someone whose job brings them in contact with cancer survivors regularly can say 'cancer is not common', we have a problem. And we should not allow this problem to grow.
As long as there is this degree of ignorance in our society, cancer survivors will find themselves marginalised, with rights and needs unrecognised, treated as being 'less than'.
Cancer survivors can help themselves by talking about their needs, their experiences. I understand the feral push to move past the diagnosis, to get on with life. But -if we don't educate society at large about us, and what it means to be a survivor, who will? There is a powerful lot of cancer survivors out there - we have all glimpsed the face of death - and survived. Let's take the strength built on the experiences of the journey, and bring others into our conversation. And in helping ourselves, perhaps we will sensitise our fellows on the responsibility of the majority towards sub-groups - the consideration, the obligation to listen, understand and,ultimately, to treat us as one of them, with the same rights - to a job, to financial provisioning, to acceptance. As normal, fully alive. For that is what we survivors are - and absolutely nothing less.
Also today, I saw the case worker who was handling my arbitration with the insurance company. She said that cancer is 'not that common'. When I told her that it strikes 30% of Singaporeans, she said that that proved it was not that common.
But taking my own experience, I believe that 1 degree of separation is getting significantly narrow. Perhaps it is my age - once you hit the big 4-0, cancer does tend to make its presence felt. Your risk of contracting the disease increases.
I have never, in my entire life, felt old. In fact, I am trying to get Bryan Adam's song, Eighteen Till I Die, put on my mobile phone as the ring tone. Today, however, I actually felt old. I was walking around a mall, and everyone there (almost) was younger than I. I looked at the trendy young girls, and found myself thinking,"Gee, where did the time go?"
I feel even older when so many people I know have cancer. When someone tells me that cancer is uncommon, it is more than just plain ignorance. It is also the foolishness of youth talking. With my diagnosis, I have crossed the line. I am on the other side of the hill now.
We know that the incidence of cancer is rising, just as we know that more people are being diagnosed at a younger age. Yet cancer is more than a disease of age - it is also a disease of lifestyle and it is reaching its frightening claws out to more and younger people, as Singaporeans become affluent. Every time I read in the papers about a cry for more fine dining restaurants, I think: all that butter and cream - killer food! But with affluence, such indulgent eating will become the norm and, more than likely, the incidence of cancer.
My point is this: cancer survivors are the new marginalised. The outcry for the aged, the unemployed, the physically challenged started some years ago, and is still going on. Singapporeans have a hard time taking a communal view of things - we are a 'me and mine first' type of society. As long as someone whose job brings them in contact with cancer survivors regularly can say 'cancer is not common', we have a problem. And we should not allow this problem to grow.
As long as there is this degree of ignorance in our society, cancer survivors will find themselves marginalised, with rights and needs unrecognised, treated as being 'less than'.
Cancer survivors can help themselves by talking about their needs, their experiences. I understand the feral push to move past the diagnosis, to get on with life. But -if we don't educate society at large about us, and what it means to be a survivor, who will? There is a powerful lot of cancer survivors out there - we have all glimpsed the face of death - and survived. Let's take the strength built on the experiences of the journey, and bring others into our conversation. And in helping ourselves, perhaps we will sensitise our fellows on the responsibility of the majority towards sub-groups - the consideration, the obligation to listen, understand and,ultimately, to treat us as one of them, with the same rights - to a job, to financial provisioning, to acceptance. As normal, fully alive. For that is what we survivors are - and absolutely nothing less.
posted by Simone @ 12:22 AM
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