I wish I had breast cancer

The much discussed ad

Did any of you follow the controversy a few months ago about the pancreatic cancer charity ad which featured the image of a pancreatic cancer patient named Kerry and her quote, "I wish I had breast cancer"?

The reaction was, unsurprisingly, fairly negative and centered around the messed up idea of setting up a competition between cancers.  HuffPost's summary here does a good job of articulating the response.

And, in breast cancer circles, there was, understandably, a lot of dismay that this woman and this ad would treat our misfortune so lightly.

But , I have a confession to make.  In a lot of ways, I actually agree with her.

Pancreatic cancer has a poor survival rate and for a 24 year old kid to find herself in the position that Kerry in the ad finds herself in, that really, really stinks.

And the thing about breast cancer is that everyone knows about the breast cancer and its fundraising juggernaut, and if you happen to forget, each October brings another round of reminders.  It's also one of the most commonly diagnosed types of cancer in the US, so it touches a lot of lives and gives a lot of people a reason to know about it.  So, of course, with all that fundraising and interest has come probably way too much "awareness" but also research.  And the research has brought about some good advances in treatment.

Then there's also the fact that unlike a pancreas, breast cancer doesn't start in a place you need to keep.  A mastectomy is, technically, an amputation, but let's face it, losing those parts isn't incomparable with life.  It's emotional, it's surgery, it's not without risks, but you just don't need breasts the way you need a pancreas, or lungs, or a liver, or blood, or kidneys, or your brain.  So there's also that.

But the biggest thing about breast cancer is what many people think they know about it.  The fundraising goes hand in hand a veritable cottage industry of inspirational stories to the point where everyone "knows" you just have to get mammograms to find it early.  Everyone "knows" it can be taken care of as long as you get those mammograms.  Everyone "knows" there's a whole inspirational army of survivors who get together at Relay for Life and speak at dinners in October and share their brave stories about beating cancer.

When Kerry in the ad says she'd rather have breast cancer, I guess she's wishing for the "early detection saves lives" kind of breast cancer; the "tough situations don't last but tough people do" kind of breast cancer, the "I caught my cancer early and I'm a 10 year survivor (look at all my pretty pink stuff!)" kind of breast cancer.  And that's the part I understand.

Because, honestly, I'm with Kerry on this one.  As long as you  define breast cancer as the detectable, treatable, easily survivable, inspirational sisterhood kind of cancer that we all "know" about, and as long as you leave out the terminal metastatic breast cancer that often does get left out, then sure, I'd rather have that "breast cancer" then what I have, too.

Problem is, they aren't actually different diseases and you never know when the "harmless" kind is going to turn out to be not.