I’m turning 50 this year and instead of whining about it, I’m trying to do something positive by donating $50 to 50 different charities before I’m 50 years old.
April is Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month so what better time than to do one of my donations to the organization that I have been involved with, the Esophageal Cancer Action Network.
Esophageal Cancer is the fastest growing cancer diagnosis in the United States among men and the second for women, with a more than 600% increase in the last three decades. It is also one of the deadliest cancers – fewer than 1 in 5 survive longer than 5 years because there are often no symptoms until it is too late to do anything about it. Even scarier, it is caused by something so commonplace that most people ignore it: heartburn (acid reflux). Making people aware of this fact could allow people to prevent EC from occurring in the first place and quite literally save lives.
I am one of the lucky ones to have survived it – I have been in remission for almost 3 years now. It has been a tough road that I wouldn’t wish on anyone and if you’re really bored you can read about my experience as I blogged it throughout 2012. The index is here.
ECAN does great work in raising awareness and leading advocacy programs and that’s why I got involved with them last year to do the Stories to Save Lives rappel event at the Universal City Hilton.
To learn more about the organization please visit ECAN.org.
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