Full Donor ListMom's The Word
Hi there! I'm Debbie. I'm 36 and currently live outside of San Diego, CA. That's me on the right, with my adorable daughter Persephone. My husband took this picture of us on Christmas Day on the beach in Coronado. I'm sure it would have been the one my mom framed to put up in her ESL classroom this year. But she'll never get to see it, because this was our second Christmas without her. You see, she died of lung cancer on January 21, 2006, at the age of 53.
Since you can't meet her I'll have to tell you about her. She married the love of her life and had three children right out of high school,yet still managed to get her Ph.D. after years of night classes and working extra jobs to pay for them. She was an accomplished pianist who never made it to Carnegie Hall like she wished for in her yearbook, but passed on her love for music by giving piano lessons instead. She was an ESL (English as a Second Language) instructor and adored her students. She loved pasta and potato chips, snowmen and sappy Danielle Steel novels. She loved to bowl even though she needed gutter bumpers; she loved Scrabble and was the only one to ever trounce me soundly. She was klutzy and funny, bashful and modest, and if she could read this right now her left ear (and only the left) would be turning bright red in embarrassment.
Time Wounds All Heels
Christmas without Mom has proven to be especially hard, most especially because the last few weeks of her life were during the holidays and she was confined to the hospital. My daughter was barely five months old, and I went crazy trying to open the doors of the Respiratory Unit with my feet to minimize contact with germs. The snowmen ornaments I'd tied to Mom's gift ended up being hung on her IV pole, instead. She was so proud of the red velvet dress she'd ordered (online! From her hospital bed!) for her youngest granddaughter to wear the following year.
I swear I don't remember much about Christmas a year later. I know that I squeezed my daughter into that dress even though Mom had bought the wrong size. Mom was always nuts about Christmas, as was I, but I had to force myself to decorate our tree.
This Christmas was the turning point. I'd started having nightmares about her death again, undoubtedly because of the time of year. But at Christmas dinner, I met a young women who'd started running marathons for lymphoma research. Hmmm...
Wheeze On Down The Road
Who, me? Run a marathon? I've always said that I would never run anywhere unless there was a mugger or an ice cream truck involved. I guess I was wrong. Nobody's trying to steal my money, but lung cancer is stealing lives. So I'll be running the Boulder Backroads Marathon in Boulder, CO on September 21, 2008.
Everyone's favorite question is, "Did she smoke?". I tell them, "Not so much as a ham". Maybe that was a mistake. Lung cancer research is seriously underfunded because of the stigma of tobacco use. Not only is this unfair to the 50% of patients with lung cancer who either don't smoke or never have, it implies that smokers who get cancer somehow deserve it. Take it from someone who had to watch: nobody deserves to die like that. Think of it this way: everyone is somebody's baby, and everyone who dies leaves behind people who love and miss them.
That's why I named this fund, "Leave No Mom Behind". It's too late for my mom, but with enough research into this deadly disease, someday a cancer patient might not have to say goodbye to a child, a spouse, or even their own mom.
Please give what you can. Do it because you love my mom, or because you love yours. Heck, do it because you can't wait to see how I manage to drag my behind for over 26 miles at high altitude. I'll do it if I have to crawl those last 385 yards, because I want to help make sure that another lung cancer patient never has to hear the words, "There's nothing more we can do for you".
Lung cancer, you can eat my dust. Besides, I think I hear an ice cream truck...
***Edited to add: I'm hearing that the donation form can be a little tricky! Checks can be made out and sent directly to The LUNGevity Foundation,2421 N. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60614. In the "memo" section, please write "The Debra Angelo Leave No Mom Behind Fund". If you have any questions for me, feel free to email me at debangel@nethere.com. Thank you again for all of your help and good wishes!***
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I'm of the opinion that you're barking up the wrong tree, though, by supporting cancer research. It's a big bucks game already and the pharmaceutical companies are laughing all the way to the bank. I lost my best friend to lung cancer and we all agree that it wasn't the tumours that killed her, but the chemotherapy. It visibly weakened her body and spirit.
I have since done extensive research and I must say a 5-year lung cancer survivor (after having chemo) is a very rare find indeed. Rather read Hulda Clarke's book "Cure for all advanced cancers" to learn how to work with the body (as opposed to poisoning it with chemo) to actually heal cancer. I wish we had known of Hulda's methods when my friend was still alive. I'm convinced it would have made all the difference.
... In any event, good luck!
