When One Door Closes...

Being back in Denver is bittersweet.  It's so wonderful to be back in my own bed, not living out of a suitcase, and having the welcome distraction of everyday normalities like working, paying bills, and sorting through the mail.  But, on the other hand, being all alone in the house where I last saw my dad alive has been heartbreaking.  I walked around the house last night after a busy day of running errands and spent hours looking at every picture we have of him.  So many wonderful memories.

But, like the saying goes, "When one door closes, another one opens" or my personal favorite, "Everything happens for a reason."  So, I've been trying to search for the reasoning behind the suffering and pain that our family has been through over the last year and have finally come up with something.  I'm going to borrow an idea that was brought up by a family member and we're going to start an annual race to raise funds to help others that are seeking alternative treatments for their cancer.

 It is well known that my dad passed away while in Mexico for alternative treatments.  They weren't experimental as all the newspapers and television reports stated; they were progressive.  If you Google anything related to alternative cancer treatment centers, millions of results will appear including hundreds of locations in and out of the US that treat cancer using methods that the FDA won't approve.  These centers have treated and saved hundreds of thousands of patients...the majority with Stage 4 cancers.  My dad tried two of them in his quest to find a cure for the rare and very swiftly moving cancer that he was diagnosed with.  He contacted and researched several others.  These centers were the only ones that gave my dad even the smallest chance of living- everyone else told him he would die.  So, we tried them.  And, although he isn't with us today, he did end up living 6 months longer than traditional medicine said he would.  That, to me, is a small success.

In 2011 1,596,670 people in the US are expected to be diagnosed with cancer of one form or another.  Cancer is now one of the top two causes of death, ranking right up there with heart disease.  It is expected to kill 571,950 people which equates to about 1,500 a day!  If alternative treatments are able to give some of these patients hope, a better quality of life, and possibly a chance at survival, what's there to lose?  However, these treatments don't come cheap and because the FDA won't approve some of them because of lack of research (and greed---just my opinion), many of them aren't covered by insurance.  Going to Mexico to have a chance at a future was the one thing that gave my dad hope until the very end.  If I can help, even a little bit, to give others the chance at that same hope, then that's what I'll do.

So, look for more blogs and details about the race we're setting up for this wonderful cause.  Plans are already in the works and I can't wait to see the fruits of our labor when it's all over and we have helped make someone's life a little bit easier while fighting such an unbeatable foe.