November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month

NOVEMBER IS LUNG CANCER AWARENESS MONTH.

My sister Meaghan was my biggest fan and we were very close. Last August 2008, she passed away after a very tough and extremely courageous 2 and a half year fight against non smokers lung cancer. Her dream was to bring awareness to lung cancer and the lack of funding for research on early detection.... She also was perplexed with the fact that the public was overwhelmed with the obligatory pink ribbons and no other colors?  The problem with lung cancer is that by the time it is detected it is usually late stage..and has traveled to other organs which makes it extremely deadly and harder to treat.

Early detection is where all the research money should be going when involving cancers such as lung, pancreatic and ovarian...but sadly, in my sister's case, research funding for lung cancer is lower than funding allocated for many of the other cancers, while it remains the number one cancer killer.

Non smokers represent an alarming 20 percent of all lung cancer cases...which is nearly as many as all of the breast cancer cases reported yearly. But my sister was not bitter about her plight..She had a vision of a "rainbow ribbon" where all cancers were represented equally in funding...and hopefully, by creating awareness, some day that may come true.

For more information on what you can do to become more aware, visit http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/ and http://meaghanshope.com/

Stop smoking, if you do...it is time...you know it is.  My sister was 37.  Use your time wisely.