Stand up 2 cancer

Pretty Woman and Spiderman producer, Laura Ziskin lost her battle to breast cancer at 61. She was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer in 2004. A powerful woman. Below was an excerpt of her interview with Glamour.

"I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. I remember a friend saying, “Laura’s a smart woman, wasn’t she having mammograms?” And of course I was. But mammograms can miss breast cancer. I had a mastectomy, chemotherapy, an autologous stem cell transplant and radiation. I had no detectable cancer after that for three years. And then a year ago I had real evidence of the disease on a scan—tumors in my liver, bones and peritoneum.

So then I went on a [clinical] trial, and that held everything at bay for a year. And then that kind of stopped working. I did some chemo for a while, and now I’m about to go on another trial. I don’t have any symptoms of my cancer, but I have to treat it so that I can be among many of those living with cancer. When I was first diagnosed, I said, “I don’t want any of this ‘living with cancer’ crap. I want it gone.” Now that it’s back, I’m perfectly happy to live with it.

When I was diagnosed I didn’t know how epidemic cancer was. You find out that everybody you know is touched by this disease. I wanted to do something, and I wanted to use the media some way. And I then I discovered that there was a group of powerful women with the same objective. All our experiences led us to what became Stand Up 2 Cancer."

Katie Couric, Glamour columnist (left) with Laura Ziskin

An article mentioned that Laura Ziskin turned Julia Roberts into a heroine and making Spiderman a real hero. I say, Laura Ziskin was a real heroine, legendary. I feel sad that many cancer patients fought hard but cancer struck back. Aggressive cancer won the battle.

However we should not let cancer kill our 'living'. We should stand up to cancer. Not an easy task because for all that we've done, cancer might creep back one day...I'm trying to have a more positive and stronger mind. Lance Armstrong's strong will and determination kicked cancer ass. I may not be as strong as Lance Armstrong but I'm stronger than I think ☺

Cancer could only be strong when we're weak; when we're strong in Christ, cancer is weak.