taking a moment for meso

If you are like me, you may have heard the word mesothelioma, but didn’t really know much about it.  I was contacted by a lovely young lady named Heather Von St. James who is a mesothelioma cancer survivor.  She let me know that she has a goal to educate people who have never heard of mesothelioma, and I was happy to help her.  (To see her story click here http://www.mesothelioma.com/heather/#.U6w4nOkg92s)

I decided to do some searching and learn more about this disease.  Mesothelioma is a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, thus it is an entirely preventable cancer.  Now I have to admit – I don’t really know too much about asbestos.  I do love watching HGTV, especially Property Brothers (they are so cute) and every once in a while during a renovation, they come across asbestos and have to call in special professionals to come and deal with its removal.  Every time I see that, it does make me wonder about the safety of older homes – if someone has to come in a hazmat suit just to remove something, it must be dangerous, but once the show is over I don’t give much thought to asbestos.  Unfortunately for Heather Von St. James, asbestos was much more than just something on a TV show – she lived through an incredible struggle to simply survive.  I am shocked to say that Asbestos is still not banned in the US. According to the Mesothelioma cancer alliance, roughly 30 million pounds are still used each year. I also learned that an average of 3000 people per year are diagnosed with mesothelioma.  Knowing this is an entirely preventable cancer – it makes me sad to think that so many people are suffering from something that we can stop. 

If you want to learn more about the dangers of asbestos or the struggles of mesothelioma, please visit mesothelioma.com.  There is a ton of clinical information about all the types of mesothelioma and the dangers of exposure to asbestos.  As more and more people become aware of, and begin to talk about this, hopefully we can come 1 step closer to the day when no one is using asbestos and no one is ever getting sick from exposure to it – ever again.