What Does Cancer Mean To Me Essay

What does the word cancer mean to you? When most people think of cancer they think of hardship, incurable, helpless, or maybe even tragedy. Up until two weeks ago I had never really thought about what cancer meant to me. I have been extremely privileged by not having to have any love ones endure this illness. That is until about two weeks ago when I got a call from my mom. Based on a recent study approximately 39.6 percent of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetimes (American Academy of Dermatology, 1). Therefore, it is almost guaranteed that every single human on this planet will have or know somebody who will have cancer in their life time. Exactly two weeks ago today I was sitting in my college dorm room when I …show more content…
She explained to me that my dad had been diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer. I was shocked, after being sheltered from cancer all my life there it was affecting one of the people I love most. My mom explained how they had detected it in a recent skin check and it needed to be removed as soon as possible. She said how he was going in to surgery as we were speaking. At this point in time I was in complete shock. In under 5 minutes I had found out that my dad who I was not able to see right away had been diagnosed with cancer and was going into surgery. Now think about when you first thought of when I asked what the word cancer means to you. As you can guess my thoughts at this time were probably very similar to yours you just had. I started thinking words like incurable, and it scared the crap out of me. As I sat there I started remembering all of the things I have heard about cancer in my past. Things like radiation treatment and how weak it leaves the patients. So I immediately grabbed my computer and started doing research. When it comes to skin cancer it is like all cancer there is no real foolproof cure that can instantly make it go away. However, it is the most