Say Anything Blog

Here’s Patrick Swayze (yes, that Patrick Swayze) pleading with the American public in the Washington Post to pony up more cash for cancer research.

I’m Battling Cancer. How About Some Help, Congress?

For me, fighting cancer is personal. Ever since I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2008, I’ve been waging an intense, often hellacious battle. It’s me (with a lot of love and medical support) against my disease.

But I’m not alone. More than 1.4 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year. In the United States, one out of three women and one out of two men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes.

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Our individual battles should also be national ones. With Congress about to decide how much money to include for medical research as part of the economic stimulus package, the time has come to take my personal fight to a larger stage. My message to our senators and representatives is simple: Vote for the maximum funding to let the National Institutes of Health fight cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. It’s not only good for our nation’s health; it’s also good for our economic well-being.

I’m not sure I’m entirely opposed to publicly-funded disease research.  Especially not for something like cancer.  But it is a bit annoying to get a lecture on this from the same Patrick Swayze who refuses to quit smoking despite being diagnosed with a particularly toxic form of cancer.

Puffing on a cigarette is not the most sensible thing to do when you’re battling cancer.

But if, as reports suggest, Patrick Swayze has only a few weeks to live, he may think it makes little difference.

The once-athletic star of Dirty Dancing, Ghost, and action films such as Point Break looked gaunt as he dragged on a cigarette while waiting for his private plane.

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Swayze has been a 60-a-day smoker for years, and research shows that smokers are twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer as non-smokers.

Maybe a two-and-a-half pack a day smoker isn’t the best poster child for the government “War On Cancer” movement in that it makes people like me feel that maybe we don’t want to subsidize the consequences of other people’s bad personal health decisions.  I recognize that cancer sometimes strikes without any real cause, and again I’m not entirely opposed to cancer research in general, but don’t put someone like Patrick Swayze in my face to lecture me about it.