Given thatlung canceris thesecond most commonly diagnosed cancerin the United States, youd think wed talk about it more.
So many people are going to ask you if you smoked.
But that sympathetic response is often followed by some version of, Did you smoke?
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Still, the question can be intrusive, not to mention irrelevant.
Elizabeth, who never smoked, found the question annoying and tiresome, but she wasnt offended by it.
Her strategy was to answer with a little dark humor.
My response…was, No.
But I guess I should have!
People didnt really know how to respond.
Gina, who also didnt smoke, had a very different response.
To her, the question felt insensitive and almost accusatory.
Its like [people were asking me], Did you do something to deserve it?
If you did smoke, you might be tempted to blame yourself.
Shed started smoking when she was 16, she tells SELF.
It was 1969, and smoking was much more common.
(This is the case for so many other people fighting lung cancer today.)
For most of Donnas adult life, she was a pretty heavy smoker, she says.
Hardly anyone in the agility world smokes, she says.
Looking back, Donna isnt proud she was a smoker.
Even though Donnas smoking was a lung cancerrisk factor, her family history may have factored into it too.
(There may be a genetic component to some types of adenocarcinoma.)
Now Donna tries not to beat herself up over something she cant know for sureor change.
As she puts it, The truth is, my smoking may have caused my lung cancer.
My family history may have caused my lung cancer.
I might just be an unlucky individual who happened to have lung cancer.
Or it may be some combination of all three.
Nobodydeserves lung cancer, Gina says.
Even if you smoked every day, and even if you knew the risk associated with that.
Weve all done risky things.
The stigma surrounding lung cancer hurts smokers and nonsmokers alike.
The radiologist told her something was very wrong and she needed to see a pulmonologist that day.
But when she called to make an appointment, there was a two-month wait, she explains.
Thankfully, the E.R.
doctor took her seriously.
It made me angry to think they could have caught it before it became stage 4, Gina says.
I knew something was wrong for months [but] I felt like no one would take me seriously.
Never-smokers, like Gina, can put themselves in the shoes of former or current smokers.
I still want to fight and advocate for my friends with lung cancer who smoked.
We all deserve that.
She has witnessed firsthand how horribly the misconception thatlung cancerexclusively impacts smokers can hurt people like this.
But, as she points out, It just takes lungs to have lung cancer.
People can show up for you in surprising ways.
Before Gina was diagnosed, she was feeling a little disillusioned with humans in general.
So many people just came out of the woodwork, it was humbling….
It really restored my faith in humanity.
Her tennis partner put on a fundraising tournament.
When she got so sick she couldnt put up her familys Christmas tree, neighbors volunteered to do it.
Somebody even started a GoFundMe for her.
This was someone Gina had played matches with and gotten lunch with but wasnt particularly close with.
She had never even been in my house before, Gina says.
That meant so much to me, Gina remembers.
So she came and lay in my bed beside me while I fell asleep.
She just stayed, and that meant the world to me.
People that I havent talked to in 10 years reached out to me, Elizabeth says.
Girls that I went to high school with…let me know that Im in their thoughts and prayers.
It hasnt been easy, but the supportmonetary, emotional, physicalhasnt gone unnoticed.
Having lung cancer means living with a degree of uncertainty.
While everyoneslung cancerstory looks different, it is rarely simple and straightforward.
[The doctors] are making their best judgment, she adds.
But you wont always have a clear plan….
I wish somebody had told me its okay to not know the answer.
Soon after Ginas diagnosis in 2015, one doctor told her she had 10 months to live.
Since then, she has undergone surgeries to remove her left lung and atumor on her brain.
There is a very small tumor in her brain that doctors are watching.
I feel good enough to do all of the things I love, Gina says.
There are days that its still very surreal to me, she says.
I am grateful for every single day.
Donna was told she had four months to live after diagnosis.
But she did well on traditionalchemofor about seven months.
She didnt expect thetreatmentto work for her.
At that point, I thought I was being altruistic, to tell you the truth, she says.
I thought it would help people coming up behind me.
But its helping her too.
Donna still has tumors, but they are stable.
She just celebrated making it to seven years post-diagnosis.
[You] just keep on living while you’ve got the option to.
I feel very lucky and blessed that Im still here, she says.
