I am not sure if cancer has ever touched on anyones lives, but in the past year a lot of people who I am friends with have turned ill through cancer. It is a truely horrible illness which people suffer, and having to sit and watch people fight against cancer has really opened my eyes a lot over the past several months.
Recently, my grandmother was diagnosed with a very rare case of Lukemia, which is apparently on a dramatic rise. It has been, and still is a hard time for my family as my mother is under no illusions that it is fatal (she is a well qualified matron) and of course, no one enjoys seeing loved family members pass away. As I now realise, nothing can ever prepare someone to be told that they have as little as a week to life, and no more than 9 months.
A good friend of mine is overcoming chemotherapy as an after-effect of bowel cancer. He is making a good recovery.
My boss and his wife have also both suffered cancer over the past two years, but both appear to be making excellent progress.
I also know of several people, often young (younger than me) who are having an ongoing fight with cancer, taking life a day at a time.
This morning an email arrived from my boss asking us to sponsor him and his wife to the Parish Walk. a 19 mile walk around the parishes of the island in aid of raising money for Cancer Research UK. I also recently read the blog which lilo posted to freenode (http://overcode.yak.net/3) of John Hall (not maddog) fighting against a serious type of skin cancer. It has some interesting links to other sites as well.
It reminded me that even in a world where physical limitations dictate existance, people are a unique experience and can never be replaced. I hope that my presence in this world has been meaningful, even if only in a small way. After all, when all of this is gone and all traces of your life have been lost you can be happy in knowing that for that brief period of time you were alive you helped make someone elses life mean something.