Stand Up to Cancer

“This is where the end of Cancer Begins.”



I cannot help but feel nostalgic over this PSA (Public Service Announcement) that had been playing at the Entertainment Channel. When I woke up today, I was able to catch the latter part of the Stand up to Cancer fundraiser show. I felt just as nostalgic. It isn’t difficult to understand why.

The first death in the family I was ever aware of was the death of my dad’s nanay. She had cancer. I think it’s the same one Former President, Cory Aquino, has, colon cancer. Nanay Isay was 78 years old when she died.

The most recent death I had to deal with can also be blamed on cancer. Cancer of the blood. Leukemia. My brother, the victim, the casualty, was only 13.

Cancer shows no mercy. It isn’t exclusive to old, worn-out bodies. It doesn’t claim only those who are devoid of zest for life.

Is cancer nature’s way of eliminating people to make sure we don’t overcrowd our planet? That I would not know.

But I know this, it sucks to lose someone over cancer. I especially hate feeling powerless, not being able to save the one you love from the frigging tortures of cancer. But things happen, even if we’d rather that they don’t.

The crusade to fight cancer, one similar to Stand up for Cancer, is somehow our chance to get back at cancer. To give justice to our loved-ones who lost their lives because of it. To make sure no one we know will have to suffer the same way they did.

I’m glad celebrities are using their fame for causes like this. It makes their pretty faces and glistening smiles worth something bigger and better.

I can’t do much from where I am right now. But I am, in my own way, standing up.

Because this just might be the where the end of cancer begins.

I'm all for that. (To hell with I am Legend's premise!)