In recognition of UNMC’s support for the Research Means Hope campaign, UNMC Today posed the following question to several people — “How does research mean hope to you?”
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Ann St. John |
Today, St. John fights her own war with cancer. Below she answers our question:
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As I write this, my hair is falling out from chemotherapy. I have breast cancer. Without research dollars being spent we would never have advanced in areas like the control of nausea.
Every cancer patient today owes a debt of gratitude for the dollars spent just on the ability we now have to make the treatments tolerable. I am not terrified that I will die of breast cancer. It was caught early with advances in detection. I will probably live to be an old woman surrounded by many grandchildren.
Yes, our son died of cancer. Yes, I miss him everyday AND I know that because of all that was learned through his journey with cancer the likelihood of someone else’s child being cured increased.
Research really is so much more than hope. Research is life.