No Mercy for Cancer Patients.

Think about this;  you have been diagnosed with cancer, you must get treatment, and the hospital where that treatment will take place is an hour and a half commute from where you live. 

You do not have the option of city transit, you must find someone who will drive you to and from your daily radiation and /or chemotherapy sessions. 

If you are fortunate enough to have a spouse or a partner who can drive you there, that is a plus.  If not you must try and find someone who can take time out of their daily routine to help you out.

  The Cancer Society has made the effort to provide volunteer drivers for those who cannot,  but if you do not live within the greater Toronto area or (GTA) than you will be hard-pressed to find a volunteer near where you live.  This can be a great headache for many who live in rural areas and some have had to delay treatment until they can find some type of accommodation within the city, or a driver to assist them.

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre provides excellent treatment for those suffering with cancer; and provides state-of-the-art quality care to all who are referred to them.  That being said,  Sunnybrook is severely lacking when it comes to caring for those who must commute daily for treatments.

Sunnybrook has no parking areas designated for those who must attend cancer treatments daily.  The parking lots are out-sourced to a private company, and this is where the problem lies.  This private company has no sympathy whatsoever for those who are suffering.  In fact,  they have security guards scouting the property like vultures just looking for someone to tag!  It is very disturbing to stay the least! 

Imagine the cost of having to commute to Sunnybrook, five days a week for three months of treatment!Sunnybrook makes you pay for parking expenses on top of  the out of pocket expenses for gasoline and wear and tear on your vehicle.  Is this stress part of the treatment?  Is worrying about the exorberant parking ticket you receive when doctors are behind schedule suppose to be good for you?

I think not!  Why has Sunnybrook let this go on for so many years?  I am sure my observations have been noted by many others,  and I bet there have been complaints regarding the parking dilemma faced by cancer patients.

Not everyone comes by TTC!  Not everyone has unlimited funds to pay for expensive parking on a daily basis!   There seems to be no mercy for those living with cancer and trying to fight it.

Sunnybrook needs to take a long hard look at the facts, and change the way they treat cancer patients, in their hospital and out-side of their hospital!

There should be a pass made available for those who must commute from out of town.  There should be designated parking spaces made available for those patients; so they do not have to worry about getting ticketed while undergoing treatment!

It is the right thing to do!

Written by, Sandra Lynn  January 28th, 2008

We Must Not Accept Cancer As We Do!

I believe we as a society have come to accept cancer as a given in life. Presently there are very few people who are untouched by this disease, whether it is a close family member such as a mother or aunt, or distant family relatives or even close friends and/or a neighbour. We all know of someone who is either battling this scourge or have suffered and died because of it.

What I find unacceptable is that we are accepting it! Yes, we donate billions of dollars to the various cancer societies/charities, and they spend quite a lot of our money on research but they spend more of it on developing ways to live WITH the disease. Yes, how to make your life more comfortable while suffering with cancer! Why? why do they insist on spending donated funds to help us learn to live with it!

Is not the point to eradicate it? stop it from permeating even further, into our lives?

Yes, it is nice to be able to live more comfortably, if the prognosis is hopeless; but the fact is the cancer societies are getting carried away with funding which does nothing to stop cancer from killing us or are loved ones!

The pink ribbons! now there are clothes and key chains and trinkets! It is turning into an economic windfall, a consumerist nightmare! Its becoming an exclusive club for some! who would really rather not be a member, if that were possible. It has become almost acceptable to say, “yes,!I have cancer and I am not ashamed, I am fighting this battle with dignity and grace!”

These cancer charities are making certain that all can live in dignity with this disease! They provide you with real human hair wigs! when your hair falls out because, after all these years and billions of dollars, they still use chemotherapy as the best line of defense! although that treatment is worse than the disease!

Not much has changed regarding treatment! radiation therapy, chemotherapy or both! not to leave out the other method, mastectomy or amputation of the tumour along with whatever body part is affected! Sounds just as barbaric as it always has, not much in the way of advances, is there?

What are they doing regarding the environmental hazzards which cause cancer?

The head of one cancer society was asked by and investigative news reporter what the cancer society was doing about a certain cleaning product which contained an ingredient known to be a carcinogen (cancer causing) chemical? The head person in charge said that it was up to consumer and corporate affairs to take responsibility on what products where being allowed to be sold safely to consumers. In fact this cancer society had no knowledge of what the product was or what the carcinogenic chemical was! So, what good are they doing? They have no lists of carcinogenic chemical ingredients to offer the public! They do not even ask companies to stop using certain known carcinogens for public health and safety!

Why are we letting these cancer societies pretend they are doing everything they can to stop this disease?

We should be educating ourselves as to what is safe and what to stay away from as these cancer charities are of no help whatsoever!

Cancer charities give our money to the big pharmaceutical companies who are getting rich, by offering us better drugs to help us live more comfortably with cancer! Why should we live with it at all? They are developing ways to tell if your offspring have a gene that makes them more predisposed to certain cancers! Well, thats’ all fine and dandy but… why do we not try to find ways to stop it in its tracks? Stop the poisoning of the environment, the air, the water with pesticides,fungicides,chemical preservatives, dioxins,phalates etc.etc.

They are quite aware of the many cancer causing chemicals we are now being born with in our bloodstreams. They are quite aware that the rates of breast cancer are on the rise, as is prostate cancers! Is it not unusual and pretty suspicious that these cancers are affecting the human reproductive systems?

They understand what the link is, but they choose to use our money to find ways to live more comfortably with cancer! better treatments, better quality of life, maybe even live longer with cancer!

Why live with cancer at all! Why do we sit idly by and let them get away with this incredibly greedy, morally corrupt, irresponsible, despicable charade?

If cancer was a contagious disease, we would call this an epidemic of monumental proportions! Worse than H.I.V./A.I.D.S!

In my family alone there has been more than 5 deaths due to cancer beginning in the 1960’s and continuing on even now as my father was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. The treatment is, radiation therapy, which is destroying his intestinal health, his body has lost most of its muscle mass and he is losing weight for no apparent reason, other than the treatment!

If this is the best the cancer charities can come up with after decades of help and billions of dollars in donations?

Is this all they can come up with? It seems so! and it is a great tragedy, a catastrophe we are choosing to accept!

We must not remain so complacent! We must demand action! They must do more! They have the capabilities, they have the funding, they have the science, they have the brains, all they lack is the will!

When its your father being exposed to radiation 5 days a week for 10 weeks to try and kill prostate cancer, getting tired and weaker by the day, you tell me… is that good enough?

Is that the best they can do?

The End OF The Dream

We continue to live in our dream, or is it ours?
Was it not in place before we became conscious of our selves?
We all pretend to be concerned for the welfare of the environment yet we have done precious little to slow down or stop that which we have caused to develop although some deny that there is even a problem at all! They would rather not believe in “cause and effect” it is so much easier to live guilt-free in this way but it is they who are in denial.

“We” have become lost in the wasteland of pavement, concrete and glass. Mile wide parking lots and even larger buildings, filled with all manner of goods in this world of consumption. We walk through the mazes of isles, lined with metal shelving, stacked with whatever our hearts desire. We can spend hours here among the plastics, cheap veneers, polyester and rayon fabrics. The smell of toxic fumes we no longer notice, it has become a part of us. In fact newborn babies are born with over 200 known carcinogens and toxic chemicals in their bloodstream. We have poisoned our children before they are even born!!

We judge ourselves and our worth on what we can or cannot afford. We get self-esteem from what we own be it a monster home or the latest designer outfits. We buy many things whether we really need them or not! because…
we are truly lost. We have lost the true meaning of life,love and happiness. It is now something we buy and replace when it has become boring or no longer the latest thing.
Constantly striving to keep up with the latest model, latest trend. To be on the cutting-edge, modern, hip, but never able to maintain this illusive goal. Why?
There is a never ending line of leading edge technology and fashionable items that we will forever be enticed to buy. Throw away the old to obtain the new! We are obscene, we have lost all control.
We are lied to and we choose to believe. We are becoming more and more complacent. We are self-righteous in our belief that our way is the right way and to deviate from that “norm” is to become a traitor or worse, a terrorist?

Well, we have all become unlikely terrorists, terrorists of the earth! We take without giving back. The only species to do so on this planet.

We bury millions of tons of garbage into the soil and it leaches toxins into the earths watersheds poisoning fish and fowl habitats, wetlands species are endangered some extinct forever. We store tons of radioactive waste, we do not know how to dispose of it safely; yet we continue to create more and more. It remains radioactive for thousands of years. We use pesticide, herbicides and fungicides on our crops to kill not only unwanted insects and pests but also the harmless ones. Many species are affected including the bee population and bird population which are paying a high price of our ignorance and greed. The bee population is in serious decline, making mankind’s days on earth numbered as we all should know; no pollinators = no food.

We continue to poison the atmosphere as well with our governments reluctance to stop using fossil fuel. We are also to blame for we elect governments who are supported by and/or indebted to corporations. We support the industry each time we buy a truck, car, van or take a vacation by airplane. Every time we buy a gas powered engine be it a lawn mower, leaf-blower, gas hedge-trimmer, ATV, dirt-bike or snowmobile, these purchases display our total disregard for the environment. It is truly unbelievable that we choose our ease and comfort or our entertainment vehicles or our status symbols, over the air we breath! Madness maybe?
The earth, the environment cannot sustain our over consumption of natural resources. We are told our society will collapse if we stop consuming. It is the earths biosphere which will/is collapsing! We are collectively being manipulated yet some will read this and claim, “No! I choose to live this way!” or “I like my life, why should I care about what happens after I’m dead and gone?” or “I recycle, I care!” Sadly it is much to little, to late.

We will reap the consequences of our inaction towards the environment.

We are ravaging and plundering the earth, we are laying waste to the seas and the forests. The soil and atmosphere are poisoned. Therefore the food we eat is contaminated. Governments therefore have created a scale of acceptable limits to create a sense of security. We ignore the danger signs; cancer, infertility,etc.
Each and every day we continue on… in blissful denial.