Help Fight Cancer by Owning Your Own Healthcare

Fran Drescher is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Fran is the President of the Cancer Schmancer Movement.

2010 is our year, my friends. And let me tell ya why.

You may or may not know it, but I am a cancer survivor. Little did I know when I was first experiencing symptoms that I was about to embark on a two-year, eight-doctor odyssey before getting a proper diagnosis of uterine cancer. I mean, I got in the stirrups more times than Roy Rogers! At first, my doctors had a number of explanations for the symptoms I was experiencing: I was “too thin,” “eating too much spinach,” “had restless leg syndrome” -- you name it.

For two years, I was given hormone replacement therapy for a peri-menopausal condition I did not have, and my doctors failed to order the right diagnostic tests because they neglected to see obvious signs. Me, I was just happy to be “too young” for anything that I didn’t even think to ask “why” or “why not.” Finally, an endometrial biopsy confirmed my worst fear: I had uterine cancer.

Well, I learned to turn lemons into lemonade and here I am today, focusing on improving cancer healthcare for women. This June, I’ll be celebrating my 10th year of wellness and it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in the last decade regarding cancer. But we’re not where we should be yet.

There are so many brilliant minds out there doing all they can to find the cure. And bless them, I hope they find it. But we need to switch this nation’s focus from just searching for the cure to prevention and early detection of cancer so that we can save lives TODAY. My hope for 2010 and beyond is that every single one of us learns to play an active role in our own health care. As educated medical consumers, we must research, ask questions, know the tests that are available and request them from our physicians. Nobody knows your body like you do, so you must listen when it whispers.

With cutbacks on cancer screening tests, our nation faces devastation. Now, more than ever, we must galvanize and be the force that advocates for early detection and availability of screening tests, because it’s simple; early detection saves lives. And as a nation, it is our responsibility to concentrate our efforts so that no woman, or man, has to lose their life due to a late-stage diagnosis of cancer. This year is our year. Let’s continue to build this movement together.

Photo credit: Pfala