Friday, August 16, 2013

a hunk, a hunk of burning knees

Stage 4 Lung Cancer mornings though I am grateful for each and every one … can be one surprise after another.

Youch! This morning I slid out of bed onto (to paraphrase Elvis) a pair of ‘a hunk, a hunk of burning knees’.

Swallowing two ibuprofen put the fire out ... while my ‘cancer coach’ consulted the Internet and concluded it was a ‘side effect’ of Decadron. As a corticosteroid Decadron can reduce inflammation around joints.

Whatever …blessed by a personal cancer coach keeping me 'focused' and two ibuprofen a most important morning began.

Sherry Christian of CBS 21 News Harrisburg was interviewing me 
on City Island to promote lung cancer awareness and the Pennsylvania  Free To Breathe Lung Cancer 5K Run/Walk … along with two other Free To Breathe lung cancer activists later in the day.

I need to ‘shout out’ CBS 21 News, and Sherry Christian in particular …. Until our stories get out of social media and into mainstream media 160,000 people a year may keep dying of lung cancer

Breast Cancer kills 40,000 women a year yet Lung Cancer will kill 70,000 women this year ... this under funding and stigmas of lung cancer has got to stop ... thank you for reaching out from the bigger screen.

(I understand the piece should run Monday, Aug 19th on CBS 21 Morning News between 6:30 AM- 7:00 AM then again on CBS 21 evening news.)
 
Pennsylvania Lung Cancer Partnership
Free to Breathe® Harrisburg
4th Annual Lung Cancer 5K Run/Walk 
& 1-Mile Walk
August 24, 2013


PS … special thanks to Johanna Kilbride of Jubelirer Strategies, Philadelphia, PA for your tireless behind the scenes campaigning to promote lung cancer awareness … somewhere in all this … WE will ALL give people a fighting chance to outlive lung cancer.

Patrick Leer
Health Activist:
My Lung Cancer Odyssey @ http://lung-cancer-survivor.blogspot.com/
Caregivingly Yours, MS Caregiver @ http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com/



4 comments:

  1. WTG to all those agencies who are putting the message out there about lung cancer!!!!

    Jackie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree it's really kind of beautiful ... when out of the shadows and stigmas ....

      Delete
  2. Yep, the stigma has to stop for goodness sake. Even if you are a smoker with lung cancer, you deserve a chance. I was not a smoker but I do not judge those that did. There has to be more shout out's like this. I am glad to hear about this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AMEN!!! When mainstream media 'cares' powerful things can happen!

      Delete