Life Lessons from a Stage 4 Lung Cancer Patient

Описание: How does a never smoker end up with Stage 4 Lung Cancer? Well, it happened to my mom.
This is Diane’s story and the life lessons she wants to share.
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Timestamps:
Resiliency & Hope: 0:00 - 3:30
Gratitude & Happiness: 3:30 - 6:25
Regrets & Finding Your Path: 6:25 - 7:34
Diane's Personal Insights: 7:34 - 11:20
The Fear of Death & Living Life: 11:20 - 12:20
Outro: 13:32 - 14:36
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Thank you for watching 🤍
If you found some value from this video, please hit the like button - this can help get the video pushed out to more people who may benefit from hearing my mom's story🙏
Read on for more information about her story, and some online lung cancer resources/support networks.
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UPDATE:
On September 26th, 2021, my mom passed away. It was sudden and unexpected because she fought so strong during these last 2.5 years. She was so full of love and life, and she never let this difficult journey dull her spirit. This doesn't feel quite real because every time she faced some form of advancement of the cancer, she came back stronger with such determination and hope.
I feel extremely lucky and grateful that I was able to create this video with her when we did. I know that she was incredibly touched by every person who watched and shared her message - this is a part of her legacy.
Thank you for being here.

❗ Should you wish to further honor my mother's memory, donations can be made to the Southlake Regional Health Centre in her name. It was here that she received the amazing level of care that allowed her a good quality of life for the last two and a half years.

◼ http://give.southlake.ca/vankeulen
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One morning in early 2019, my mom took herself to the hospital emergency room. She was experiencing excruciating pain in her shoulder blade and tenderness in her spine, and had no idea why.
What they found shocked all of us: stage four lung cancer.
It had been living in her body for so long that it metastasized into her bones and lymphatic system. We were stunned and confused – our first thoughts were that it didn’t make any sense.

Through this diagnosis my mom learned much about the stigma surrounding lung cancer, especially late stage, and discovered that very little screening exists for lung cancer because of the associated stigma. Lung cancer often doesn’t present obvious symptoms until it’s at late stage.
Because of this, she has spent much of her time over the last two years advocating for other lung cancer patients. She wants people to be aware of the stigma of lung cancer and how it affects people’s diagnosis and access to care.

She wants people to know that if you have lungs, you can get lung cancer.

She also learned first hand how daunting the survival rate for stage 4 is, and how little research dollars are given to finding life saving treatments.
Even though a screening program does exist, it is only available to those with a smoking history.
What's more is that many people may not access testing to check for lung cancer because of the associated stigma.

Today, my mom is on a targeted drug therapy treatment that has been the first treatment to show truly promising results. Her battle with this cancer has been up and down from the start to say the least, and she's really shown us how resilient she is in rolling with the punches that cancer throws (maybe this has something to do with inherited Dutch stubbornness).

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RESOURCES
Canadian Cancer Network: https://survivornet.ca/
Lung Cancer Canada: https://www.lungcancercanada.ca/
Lung Health Foundation: https://lunghealth.ca/