A terrific opportunity fell into my lap last week. The opportunity to tell about a unique support group which is making a difference for Ottawa area Lung Cancer patients.

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month #LCAM and things are ramping up in the Lung Cancer Advocacy world.

I’m fairly new to this world, but lately I’ve been feeling a growing sense of urgency – perhaps even a “calling” – to speak out on behalf of so many lung cancer patients who can’t. Watch this space as I plan to post more often than usual throughout November.

The day after the first ever meeting of the Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group, the leader asked if I was willing to be interviewed for a story about the group in our local newspaper.

I’m so grateful for my fellow participants and our lovely leader, but when the reporter asked me to tell him about members of the group, all I could say is, “Support Group is like Fight Club [a movie I’ve never seen]: what happens in support group stays in support group!”

Somehow I found things to say that did not breach confidentiality, and the reporter managed to tell the story very well!

Thank you to Blair Crawford and Wayne Cuddington of The Ottawa Citizen for kindly and skillfully telling the story of the first ever Lung Cancer support group sponsored by Lung Cancer Canada in partnership with the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation and The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre. November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month #LCAM

Click here to view the web story with a video clip

Last night I had a vivid dream: I was piloting a small two-seater plane and it was going down!

I was flying along and all was well, then suddenly everything went black! When I came to, we were plummeting to earth. We were going straight down! I desperately reached for the controls, and not knowing how exactly it happened, I somehow landed on a fairly pleasant island. I walked around and explored it, met lots of interesting people, but I desperately wanted to go home. I searched and searched but couldn’t find a runway. I went around asking for help, but couldn’t figure out how to get my plane to take off again. I was stuck on this little island. Stuck and yearning for home!

I think what may have triggered this dream was the conversation I had with our 10 year old daughter last night just before bed. A dear friend recently passed away, and we were talking about grief and some of the ways his wife might be feeling, and what the journey of grief is like. And because I take eight pills every day and lung cancer is our ever present reality, lung cancer was there last night too, just below the surface of this conversation with my daughter. I let her bring it up, and we talked a bit about it, and once again I heard words that break my heart, words that no mom wants to hear from her little girl: I don’t remember what you were like before lung cancer.

I’m tearing up this morning, sitting at the computer writing this. I wish lung cancer had never entered our lives. I wish we could escape it. I want to be healed!

Lung cancer unexpectedly plunged our little plane into a nose dive. By some miracle we didn’t crash and burn but now we’re trapped on this little island and it feels very small.

I’ve been privileged to meet wonderful people here. I’ve learned a lot and grown a lot. I’ve experienced so much grace and kindness from many sources. I’m so grateful my life has been extended… but I want to go home: I want to be healthy again! I yearn for life without appointments, needles, scans, anxiety, frustration, daily pills, pain and far too many limitations. I yearn for life without lung cancer!

I dream of a cure for lung cancer!

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

One in thirteen Canadians will be diagnosed with lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer.

Funding for lung cancer research is abysmal.

Far too many of us are dreaming of a cure for lung cancer.

Would you help us?