Make sure to check this out:<br><br><br><br>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4779694.stm<br><br><br><br>
No smoke without fire<br><br>Not everyone with lung cancer is - or has been - a smoker. But some sufferers say people assume they have been - and warn that the stigma could be costing lives.<br><br>
<br><br><br>Wednesday is No Smoking Day, which puts lung cancer back on the national agenda - briefly.<br><br>Viewed by most as the "smokers' disease" it is rarely in the headlines and definitely not a cause celebre like breast cancer, despite being the biggest cancer killer in the UK. To put it bluntly, it has a serious image problem.<br><br>One in 10 people who get it have never actually been smokers themselves or lived with smokers, according to Cancer Research UK. Dana Reeve, the wife of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, died of the illness on Tuesday despite being a non-smoker her whole life.<br><br>Prejudice<br><br>But people's assumptions that sufferers have been smokers has far reaching consequences, from the way sufferers are treated to funding for research.<br><br>On a personal level lung cancer patients are viewed as "only having themselves to blame" for getting the disease. And despite claiming the lives of more than 38,000 people every year - more than leukaemia, breast and prostate cancer combined - it receives just 4% of the national cancer research budget.<br><br>"You are judged in a way that you never would be if you had breast cancer," says 47-year-old Theresa Fletcher, a life-long non-smoker and lung cancer patient. <br><br>"The first thing I am ever asked when I tell people about my illness is if I smoke or ever have done. The inference is that they think people with the disease must have brought it on themselves. Fighting lung cancer is tough enough without having to deal with other people's prejudice about it."<br><br>And the assumptions don't just start outside the hospital, they are also made by other cancer patients.<br><br>"I have spent a lot of time in hospital waiting rooms over the last few years and other people always ask me if I have breast cancer," says Theresa.<br><br>"They just assume if you are a woman you won't have lung cancer, as it is seen as an old man's disease. But it's not, anyone can get it and not necessarily through smoking. People need to be educated so they don't make assumptions and realise they are at risk too."<br><br>The married mother of five was diagnosed in 2003. She had found a small lump on her neck but had none of the symptom commonly associated with the illness, such as coughing and breathlessness.<br><br>Assumptions<br><br>A biopsy confirmed it was lung cancer, leaving her devastated. Things got worse when in July 2004, a scan revealed the tumour had spread to her brain, but after treatment she is now in remission.<br><br>The reaction to Theresa's lung cancer is not unusual and the stigma that it is always caused by smoking is costing lives, says the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation (RCLCF).<br><br>Even if everyone gave up cigarettes today lung cancer would still exist as it is not exclusively caused by tobacco and its incubation period can be decades, says the charity's chief executive Mike Unger.<br><br>"The stigma surrounding lung cancer and smoking is doing huge damage and has serious consequence when it come to funding, research and saving people's lives," he says.<br><br> <br>I really believe it helps to maintain a positive attitude throughout your treatment but that is hard when you know people think your illness is your own fault<br>Theresa Fletcher<br>"It receives just 4% of the total funding for cancer research in spite of killing 22% of cancer patients. When it comes to campaigning, we are the only lung cancer charity in the UK and we are always struggling to raise money. This is all costing lives. "<br><br>According to RCLCF, for every mortality from leukaemia £9,008 has been spent on the patient, for breast cancer it is £3,000, but for lung cancer it is just £117.<br><br>It has one of the lowest survival rates for any cancer because it is often not detected and treated early enough, but no national screening programme is planned while £72m is being spent on one for breast cancer. The government says it is following a trial of lung cancer screening in the US to see if it would actually save lives. <br>Theresa says while the media reports the debate about breast cancer patients wanting the drug Herceptin, there is no similar awareness of the access problems of the lung cancer drug she has been using, Tarceva. Some primary care trusts are refusing to approve the £1,500-a-month drug, though that is not widely reported.<br><br>The high profile of other cancers should not be changed, she says, but lung cancer should stand alongside them, both in terms of campaigning and funding. Only then will the stigma be tackled.<br><br>"No cancer is easy to deal with, whatever type you are unlucky enough to get, and surviving it is an achievement," she says.<br><br>"I really believe it helps to maintain a positive attitude throughout your treatment, but that is hard when you know people think your illness is your own fault. I used to get angry, but now I don't waste the energy." <br>
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
