I lost both my parents to cancer.
My Dad was a country boy who smoked from an early age. When he was in his late 50s, he went into hospital to have a small cyst removed from his eye. It required a general anaesthetic and he had to fast prior to the aperation. Smoking was not allowed. When he ate his first meal after the operation, he declared that he had never tasted anything so good in his life and vowed he would never smoke again. And he never did. Though he was free of cancer at that time, the wretched disease had already grabbed hold of him and 10 years later, at age 69, he died of lung cancer.
I was 27 at the time of his death and I experienced a great deal of rage and hatred of cigarette companies following my Dad's death. I blamed them and held them responsible for his death. It was 1977 and lots of people smoked back then. There was no real anti-smoking lobby to speak of. I seemed to be the only one who wanted smoking banned. My how times have changed.
It wasn't just that I'd lost my Dad. My mother also lost her husband. My Mum and Dad were a real Darby & Joan couple who lived for each other. They were inseparable. It took Mum a long time to recover from my Dad's death. In many ways, she never did fully recover. The month of May, when Dad died, was always a bad time of year for Mum.
In 1991, at age 80, cancer took my Mum from me. She had been diagnosed with inoperable bowel cancer. I was sitting by her bed, holding her hand, when she passed away.
I can put Dad's lung cancer down to his smoking and therefore hope there's no genetic connection. However, I fear there may be a genetic weakness with my Mum's bowel cancer, that could impact on me. Mum was always a very healthy eater who loved fruit and vegetables. One wouldn't expect her to be a candidate for bowel cancer. My doctor sends me off to the specialist for a colonoscopy ever three years, because of my family history.