You probably think you’ve won. After all, there’s still no cure. Millions have and are still dying from your cruel torture. Around the world, family and friends are forced to watch their loved ones suffer every day. You’ve negatively impacted so many lives, and I bet you’re proud of it, aren’t you?
But, cancer, you’re losing. And I’m here to tell you why.
Dear cancer, don’t take this the wrong way, but you pick your targets very poorly. See, you have a tendency to go after the best of us. And while they are the most undeserving of your awful torment, they are also the strongest people ever. You might think that you can break them down, but fighting you only makes them even stronger. After battling through all the chemo treatments, surgeries, and countless sleepless nights, many emerge victorious, leaving you behind them in the dust (and rightfully so). And, frankly, those you “defeat” are in a better place now, a place that’s worthy of the kind of people they are.
Dear cancer, you may think you break the family and friends of those who you ultimately take. But, after all the grief and pain has passed, they too will come out on the other side. Despite the heartache, there will come a day when they will look back on the time they had with their loved one and smile. They won’t pay any mind to you. Cancer, if you're looking for attention, it's not working. In all honesty, the only reason people care about you is because we want you gone.
And dear cancer, we will never rest until we find a cure. Have your fun and play your games while you’re still here because, I assure you, soon you’ll just be a distant memory. And no one will miss you. Hundreds of years from now, people will look back on these times and wonder how something so awful as you even came into our world in the first place.
Dear cancer, you just may be getting worried that, yes, someday you’ll lose this battle. But you’re already losing. Your main goal has always been to tear lives apart in any cruel way possible. But you have failed.
You might try to tear us down, and you even take some of those closest to us. But you will never break us. Instead, you have united us as one human race in the fight against you. And despite all of our differences in race, age, gender, nationality, you name it, one thing we all have in common is our hatred towards you. Because cancer, you are nothing more than a disease. You are the scum of the earth.
And even as individuals, you can’t break us. Having you as a prevalent and unfortunate reality in our world only makes us appreciate each and every day more. You make our laughs a little fuller, our eyes a little brighter, and our smiles a little bigger -- not because of what you do, but because of what you accidentally remind us. You remind us that love is the most important thing in this world, and we need to make sure those closest to us know it every day. You remind us that our lives on earth aren’t permanent, but that our spiritual lives with God are. You remind us to live everyday to the fullest, because we never know which will be our last. And it may sound strange, but thank you.
Dear cancer, thank you for making me wake up in the morning appreciating everything that I have been given. Thank you for reminding me to never let an opportunity pass by. Thank you for helping me decide to smile at a stranger. Thank you for making me watch the sunset a little longer. Thank you for giving me a parent in heaven, because now I will always have him as my guardian angel watching over me. Thank you for making me into the person I am today.
You’re probably confused, cancer. Why would I thank you? Well, I'm thanking you not because of what you’ve taken away from me, but because of what you have given me -- hope. Hope that there are better days to come, and another life in heaven to come as well!
“Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear.” These words are so true.
So, finally, dear cancer…
Do you see it know? You’ve failed. Yes, you may have taken some of those dearest to us and you may have devastated many of us for a time -- but we always manage to come back to a better place. You have united us against you and reminded us about all the joys of this gift we call life. It’s beautiful, but it’s not what you intended to do, is it? So, it looks like we're winning, doesn't it?
Sorry to break it to you, cancer, but…
You’ve already lost.