The C Word

Yesterday my best friend called me to say that her husband was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. He is 33.
Another friend of ours, C, the wife of one of S's groomsmen, was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. She is also in her early 30s.
I learned from a coworker recently that another colleague of ours, in Sales, recently fought (and won) a battle with lymphoma. He looks to me to be in his early 40s.
This morning on NPR's "Day to Day," there was a story about a young woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 21, is still fighting it now at 30, and has garnered a "cult awareness" of her unique personal ads on an online dating site.
Cancer really is everywhere, isn't it? I have to admit I hadn't given it very much thought till recently, mostly because it is not prevalent in my family, so I hadn't thought about it in a personal way until this year, when C received her diagnosis.
Now it's really on my mind, and I see that cancer affects so many, and maybe everyone, in time. Either we have it, we have had it, we will have it in the future, we know someone who has it, we know someone who had it and survived, or we know someone who had it and did not survive.
Another something I see, which makes me feel so good, is that so many people affected by cancer are full of hope and positivity. My best friend (K), for example, who has the husband recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, is very focused on the many positive aspects of her husband's case: the cancer is localized, the number of cancer cells appears to be quite small, her husband was self-aware enough to take himself to the doctor when he noticed some unusual symptoms, and his diagnosis occurred very early. Also, other family members of his have had prostate cancer, and all lived to tell about it. K told me last night, "We're doing everything in our control to fight this," and she said that gives her and her husband a good feeling. It gives me one, too. I feel confident that K's husband and Friend C are both going to pull through and win their respective battles. They are not sitting idly by; they and their loved ones are taking action and informing themselves and truly doing everything they can.
They are hopeful, and I am, too.