Marcy Markusa reflects on how cancer devastates, unites us

This week on Information Radio we've been doing a special series of stories about cancer, a disease that affects so many people in Manitoba that every three hours, one person loses their life as a result.

We've also heard about wonderful advances in treatment this week that give children a better chance of survival than ever before and promising research that might reduce the side effects of relentless chemotherapy drugs.

Cancer is a very powerful disease both in its ability to attack our families but also in how it brings us together in a way that few other illnesses do.Perhaps it is because you can't hide from it.If you get cancer, it is often on display for all to see due to the devastation it can inflict on your appearance as you do battle.So people fight on, even as the struggle becomes public and it galvanizes communities to act.

Whether through socials or go fund me campaigns or larger walks that first began with Terry Fox crossing the country on one leg, people come together.

Darcy Miller

I really enjoyed meeting Darcy Miller this week.He is a farmer from near Elie, Man. who is currently in remission with colon cancer.Despite that, he decided to keep fighting cancer in the best way he knows how by planting a crop. With help from his community, Darcy will donate the proceeds from the harvest over the next three years to cancer research.

"As a pedigree seed grower I'm a firm believer in research and I just said, 'You know, anything we can do to try and keep the research going,'" said Miller. "I know it's not huge compared to their overall budget, but on a one project scale I feel it should be a good return," he said.

The donation could reach $55,000 a year. Darcy says he came up with the idea while in the waiting room for a chemotherapy appointment.

• Harvesting hope for cancer research in Manitoba

He was feeling anxious and afraid until he saw the brave kids who were waiting for the same treatment. "Cowboy up," he said to himself. I love that.

Baba Vicki

On a personal note, this week has brought up some very vivid memories of my grandmother, Baba Vicki dying of cancer.

It was 20 years ago and it started at Christmas dinner when we noticed she looked a little jaundiced.Shortly afterward she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.She died two months later, on my birthday. actually.No treatment, no fight, no possibility of survival.She was 73 years old.

It was a surreal ending for a woman who walked off her Saskatchewan family farm as a teenager and came to Winnipeg to work.A strong, large lady, whose rough hands were proof of a life spent cleaning houses, ended her days in a palliative care ward as a sunken-cheeked ghost of her former self.

My Baba lied to us about the pain she was experiencing so she could stay home as long as she could. She did that until my dad caught her crawling to the washroom after finishing a bottle of Tylenol 3's that had no effect on her at all.

The day she died my father wept at her bedside and I will never forget what he said: "Why can we do so many things in this world and we can't beat this devastating disease?"

I suppose the "why" is something the world of scientific research continues to chase.

A chase that we all join the minute cancer touches our lives.We become part of a defiant collective voice that does not want cancer to beat us.Survivors tell their stories and refuse to be defined by cancer.People in remission speak of living with cancer although many are forever changed once their lives have been threatened.

Growing hope

For those, like me, who have lost someone, there is still a dream that future generations of our families might not have to worry about cancer at all.It is already changed so much from when I was a kid.In my own life I know of more people who have survived cancer than have lost their lives to it.

I also think that one of the best things about today is our ability to live as a global community. I think it gives us the ability to normalize cancer and for that matter, other diseases as well.It brings people out of the shadows of illness to be able to just live.

With the click of a computer mouse or the swipe of a smart phone screen or, I hope, with the turn of a radio dial you can find a community that you can relate to.

If you have a story to share with us about how your outlook on life has been changed by cancer, join the discussion on our Facebook page: CBC Manitoba Information Radio.