Today America celebrates cancer survivors

June 6th is National Cancer Survivors’ Day. A few decades ago, there would have been few to commemorate this moment. Cancer was both nearly incurable, and it was also deeply stigmatized. Despite battling the disease, relatively few people–and still fewer celebrities–were willing to speak about it in public.

Part of what we celebrate today is that this damaging silence is behind us. Over ten million Americans have survived cancer, a tribute to the work of tens of thousands of tireless medical researchers, and millions of people working diligently to raise money for research and treatment. The survivors include Lance Armstrong, Robert DeNiro, Colin Powell, and probably someone in your family, as well.

Today’s commemoration of cancer survivors owes its birth to Merril Hastings of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship. It was first recognized in 1988; since then, it has been celebrated in a number of countries, and has been the subject of a speech by President George W. Bush.

We have a long way to go before this disease is vanquished. Cancer is not a single illness with a single cause. It is a family of illnesses that operate in similar ways, and have a myriad of causes. Research in some areas has been remarkably successful, but we are far from having any “magic bullet” that will cure, let alone prevent, cancer. Despite that, the courageous stories of ten million Americans prove that cancer can be beaten. It is a difficult fight, one that requires families to pull together.