We need to talk about cancer

On May 25 Deer Lake remembered little Isla Marie Short (April 28, 2014-Nov. 1, 2017). Although she is no longer here she certainly owned the town for that day.

The next day, Willie Bridger of Brighton, (Feb. 6, 1934 – May 23, 2018) was laid to rest.

I attended both funerals. Although both lived quite a distance from each other and were 80-plus years apart both were plucked from this world by a plague that is sweeping the land called cancer.

This is getting worse every year and age does not matter.

These are just a couple of people of hundreds who I have known within the last few years who did not get to live a normal life and die with dignity.

Cancer has hit my family hard. The first one my step dad, Dorman Slade died in 1948.

The next one my sister, Gwen in 1996, quite a few years apart. Since that time my friends have been dropping like flies.

Since I started writing about cancer in May 2011, while taking cancer treatment in St. John’s, I was told by the cancer society that we are saving more people than ever and at that time one in three would

“We owe it to our little children, like little Isla, to try and fix this problem so that our young and old alike can live a normal life.”

get cancer in their lifetime. While they were right they were saving more, there are many, many more who are dying. This year the cancer society came out with statistics that one in two would get cancer in their lifetime. That shows I was right in 2011 and that cancer is increasing at an alarming rate.

The purpose of this letter is not only to pay tribute to Isla and Willie but to make sure they are not forgotten.

Both of their pictures, including one of my step dad from 1948, are on my kitchen wall where I remember them every day.

I am hoping by this letter to get a conversation going and realize that cancer is a plague that is destroying our families and we must do something about it.

As I pleaded many years ago, we have to find out what is causing this because there are certainly some poisons out there that is making us sick. I have seen more people die from cancer the last 20 years than in all of my lifetime.

We owe it to our little children, like Little Isla, to try and fix this problem so that our young and old alike can live a normal life.

If the Canadian Cancer Society and the health care system don’t wake up, in a couple of years they will be admitting that all of us will get cancer in our lifetime.

There are two things that have to happen.

We have to get the poisons out of our foods and water and the health care system must do more to find these cancers before it’s too late.

Too many of my friends have died from cancer, after going to the doctors for months and sometimes years but were told three weeks before they died they had cancer.

Cancer is a silent killer and if doctors don’t do more tests for cancer many more will die unnecessarily.

Let’s make sure that little Isla Short and Willie Bridger did not die in vain