What can possibly be said about cancer that hasn't been said before? That it steals lives? That it makes no distinction between young and old, male and female? That it kills more Canadians each year than any other disease?
We've heard all those things before, enough times that, for some of us, we start to tune out when the latest fundraising campaign is gearing up.
But consider the following: In 2011, cancer will kill about as many Canadians as the entire population of the capital city of B.C.
According to Canadian Cancer Society statistics, about 75,000 deaths will occur nationally this year, just shy of Victoria's last census count of about 78,000.
Imagine an entire city, empty of people. It's chilling.
And since we're on a geography theme, consider this second fact: there will be an estimated 177,800 - about 85 per cent of the population of Burnaby - new cases of cancer this year in Canada.
Cancer's impact in Canada is, in a word, massive.
There are things we can do individually when it comes to cancer: listen to health advice and follow a lifestyle that limits risk factors, like smoking. But that only accounts for a portion of cases - the rest occur in otherwise healthy people in the prime of their lives.
At the end of the day, our best protection against cancer is to learn more about it, develop better treatments and maybe, just maybe, find a way to stop cancer all together someday.
And that's why events like the upcoming Terry Fox Run in Burnaby are so important. David Gasson's story (see page 3) has a happy ending - he survived and has been able to continue his life. This year, 75,000 other Canadians just like him will not be so lucky.
There are many demands on our donation dollars and, in this economy, sometimes not many dollars left to give. But the potential impact that the Terry Fox Foundation has for all our lives is also massive. We can imagine an entire city lost to cancer. Can we imagine a world without cancer at all?
