Extraordinary Offering v.3

Extraordinary Offering 

The inspiring stories of volunteerism with the Foundation For Molecular Medicine

This is a series of stories from the volunteers at the Foundation For Molecular Medicine, who offer the extraordinary gift of themselves to the mission of the organization. The stories reflect the diversity of personal experiences each volunteer brings to the organization along with their motivation and desire to improve the lives of others. 

Volunteerism truly is the Extraordinary Offering.

My Story – National Cancer Survivor Day

By: Candace Shaw

Today is National Cancer Survivor Day, a day to celebrate friends and family that have struggled and became a survivor of Cancer. My mom is one of the survivors. This post is dedicated to my mom and her continued fight to live a healthy cancer-free life.

So often, one perceives volunteers to be completely selfless individuals who give of themselves to a cause in an effort to change the world for the better. Well, that really isn’t me: I am completely selfish with my volunteerism for the Foundation For Molecular Medicine. You see, about 5 years ago, my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy followed by an unimaginable quantity of chemo-cocktails to ‘heal’ her. I was introduced to the work of the Foundation at the beginning of this year, the only thing I could think about was that if I help with this organization, it will keep my Mom here with me longer, keep her a breast cancer survivor for longer. Selfish, I know.

When someone you love has cancer everything changes. The focus moves quickly from complete and utter dismay to how to fight and beat this cancer into total remission.  I learned very quickly from my Mom’s cancer experience that the process of cancer treatment has not improved much over the past 20 years. Doctors don’t really have any new or improved answers. Instead, they have a somewhat general idea about what treatments might work based on their personal understanding of what has worked in the past for others inflicted: not very scientific to say the least. After cutting the cancer out, a series of immeasurable and unquantifiable processes occur. The chemo and radiation treatments become a mostly subjective patchwork of a small pool of Doctors perceptions of what could – hopefully – work. That method doesn’t really work for me since I am not someone that particularly enjoys banking on ‘hope’ when it comes to my family’s health.

Moreover, this cancer problem doesn’t begin and end with my Mom. Cancer seems drawn to my family like little flecks of metal to a giant magnet. Breast Cancer, Kidney Cancer, Thyroid Cancer, Colon Cancer, Bladder Cancer, Leukemia…the list goes on and on. The youngest family member that had cancer was 7 years old. My cousin’s daughter was diagnosed about a year after my Mom. Talk about one blow right after another!

 So today, on National Cancer Survivor Day, I am proud to say that my Mom is a survivor of Breast Cancer. As selfish as it is, I volunteer at the Foundation in an effort to keep her a survivor for a long time. The Foundation’s mission is to support education on early detection of metastatic cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and promoting healthy lifestyles. The Foundation does that by supporting students and universities that offer studies in advanced biotechnologies, molecular diagnostics and molecular treatment. As an FFMM volunteer I have an opportunity to bring my talent and skills to an organization that can make a difference in my Mom’s life and in my family’s life. Selfish in so many ways, but that is why I volunteer for the Foundation For Molecular Medicine.

Sue Shaw - 2 years later