This past weekend, Newport Beach hosted the 21st
annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. In the sea of pink shirts and pink
ribbons, there were shining eyes full of hope.
The Race for the Cure offers the chance for everyone in society to rally
around cancer victims. With a cancer
survivor on our race team, spirits were high this weekend. Together, we beat it.
In the sea of thousands of eager racers, there were so many
diverse stories. These were stories of
hope, of loss, of regret, and confusion.
The most heart breaking ones were the stories of people who didn’t know
that they could get cancer from following their doctor’s directions. Take for instance the increases in bladder
cancer from patients who took Actos.
Type 2 diabetes sufferers already have a difficult
time. Chances are patients acquired this
adult onset diabetes from poor diets and lack of exercise. Perhaps no one explained that eating a poor
diet could put you at significant risk for diabetes. But did you also know that now it can put you
at risk for bladder cancer?
Thousands of type 2 diabetes patients have taken Actos, a
popular diabetes medication that promised to control blood sugar levels. And as a result, they’ve since developed
bladder cancer. The U.S. Food and DrugAdministration warns that Actos users are 40% more likely to develop cancer if they’ve
taken the drug for a year or longer.
It seems like everything can change in the blink of an
eye. And so last weekend, people ran and
walked to show their support for people battling cancer. I raced (walked really) for my sister, for my
friend, and to support cancer victims everywhere.
