What Cancer Schmancer Means to Me - Emily Dolgin
In 1935, my grandmother Ann was born to my great-grandparents, who were Ashkenazi Russian immigrants, and owned a laundry store in Manhattan on East 65th Street. They had not a lot of money, and went through so much together. But the worst was when my great-grandma Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1949. My grandmother was 14 when my great-grandmother died.
To this day, it still angers me that my grandma had to go through the rest of her adolescent and adult life without a mother. It angers me that my father and his siblings, as well as his cousins, never got to meet their grandmother. But what really angers me is that there is still no cure for breast cancer. In 2010, breast cancer is around 98% treatable if caught in Stage 1.
I was sitting at home watching George Lopez on Nick at Nite about 4 months ago. It was over, and some random show called “The Nanny” came on. It was some nasally Jewish woman saying all this Yiddish. I started to laugh because she sounded like my grandma. About a month later, after George Lopez, “The Nanny” was on again and I decided to watch it. I started researching and saw she wrote a book, and started an organization called “Cancer Schmancer.” I wanted to learn more. I went on to www.CancerSchmancer.org and read Fran’s story. I read about what they did, and I knew I wanted to help. I decided to donate $100 of Bat Mitzvah money to Cancer Schmancer, because I want to help make women aware of gynecologic cancers, and also make sure the women in my family were getting proper screenings. I memorized the Cancer Schmancer’s jingle, and told my family about the organization. It made me realize how far women have come in society, but it also made me realize any woman in my family, even I, could get a gynecological cancer.
I want the words of Cancer Schmancer and Fran to reach every single woman in this world. I want all women to be able to live to be old and gray and healthy as can be. I want them to be there for their children as they wish they can, and I want their children and families to have a mother, wife, sister, and grandmother to go through life with. I want my parents to make it to their 50th anniversary. I want my sister to share memories with. I want my brother to have a wife to raise a family with. I want my grandmothers to learn from and talk to. I want children and a husband someday and I don’t ever want to leave them when I’m not ready to.
I know and pray that Fran’s words will reach women worldwide, and that everybody can have longer and healthier lives if they wake up, listen and live better. By not listening and not being educated, another mother would be gone, another sister would be lost. Without Cancer Schmancer, a lot of women would not be here today. I want to help ensure more women live!
