Cancer is a word our family and friends have unfortunately always been accustomed to hearing.
Cancer, or “The Big C” as we often refer to it, has stolen time with loved ones for as long as I can remember. From an early age, I felt helpless.
The helplessness slowly began to subside when I was in my teen years and on into college by participating in fundraising events of all kinds. This certainly helped to lessen the blow of not being able to cure cancer, knowing I was helping in some way, though I still wanted to do more.
Once I began my professional career at NHTI, Concord’s community college, as a student activities director, I was able to further leverage my expertise in event planning. Beginning in the early 2000s, I was part of a large group of people who successfully transitioned the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event from Concord’s Memorial Field to NHTI. It was during that process that our family was dealt yet another significant blow from cancer. Our uncle was diagnosed and would soon pass away at the young age of 50.
This only further fueled my desire, and that of our family and friends, to pursue a cure in a meaningful way. We all created a team and raised a great deal of money for cancer research in our uncle’s name. Throughout the process, we couldn’t help but meet and learn about too many others’ stories and how similar they were to ours. They also were too familiar with “The Big C” and understood the thought the face of cancer may continue to change, the same problem persists: although treatments continue to get better, we still do not have a cure.
Fast forward several more years and I met my future wife only to learn she has some similar stories, as well as my now mother-in-law having battled breast cancer. It is clear she did not go through it alone from the great treatment she received to the family support. There was cancer again. Once my mother-in-law was deemed a survivor, we began participating in several impactful breast cancer fundraising events including the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Boston.
We did that religiously for several years and then life got in the way and we stopped doing it.
Well, a few years ago a good friend and mentor received a diagnosis of breast cancer. This would be her third cancer diagnosis in as many years. Here was “The Big C” yet again, impacting somebody who was already dealing with enough health issues. This once again lit the fire in me to act. I began participating in the Real Men Wear Pink campaign through the American Cancer Society in which I wear something pink every day in October to raise awareness, while also raising funds for cancer research. This time I included more people and have the support of many colleagues also engaged.
Through this campaign, I met some more passionate people and got reconnected to the Making Strides event in Concord, knowing it is a statewide walk to bring together advocates and survivors. They are people just like me, my family, and my friends, seeking better treatments and the eventual cure for cancer. Today, I have joined the Executive Leadership Council for Making Strides, will continue to walk and will continue the Real Men program. You see, it is the continued fight that is the only way to beat cancer.
I am more committed now than ever to finding a cure for cancer while celebrating all of our loved ones who are survivors. I hope you will join me in this fight at the NH Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.
Persistence matters.
Chuck Lloyd of Bow is president of White Mountains Community College.