Dear Editor,
There is a plague sweeping across the land and it seems we are powerless to do anything about it — or are we?
In 1948 my stepfather of one year, Dorman Slade (aged 49), passed away with cancer in Lushes Bight, the town where I grew up. I didn’t pay much attention to cancer because there weren’t many people who had it.
On December 29, 1996, my only sibling, Gwen, after a long bout with cancer passed away at Labrador city at age 58. Part of me died with her, her death was a wakeup call for me. I started looking at life in a different way, started attending more funerals and was surprised to learn the number of people who were dying from cancer.
On April 17, 2010, my very dear friend and cousin Beth Colbourne from Long Island passed away at age 55 and that is what prompted me to write this letter. I did not get to know Beth until approximately six years ago after they returned home after retiring from teaching. After getting to know Beth we became close friends and when she died a bit of me died with her (too young to die). Her funeral was one of three people buried in two days from cancer within a 10 mile radius.
On the 21 of April 2010, there was an item on the national news that stated that Canada was putting way more cancer causing pollutants into the atmosphere than the US. It just proves that what I have been saying for years — most of the people who are dying with cancer are caused by the poisons that we are putting into the environment and our foods.
After all this time and money put into fighting cancer we seem to be losing the battle. Maybe we need to put more effort into fighting the cause, as they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but then the multinational companies that are making billions of dollars poisoning the planet are too powerful for government to control. We have to die to make other people rich.
As you have guessed by now the plague I am talking about is cancer. I am powerless to do anything about it but there are people in our government who can if they are willing. According to statistics released Wednesday, May 18 by the Canadian Cancer Society, 1420 people are expected to die from cancer in NL in 2010. When it comes to cancer there is no age that is safe, I have lost many friends to this dreaded disease. The purpose of this letter is to try getting a dialogue going on the prevention of this dreaded disease and people like my sister Gwen and my friend Beth did not die in vain.
Wilfred Bartlett
Brighton, NL
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