Mesothelioma is a rare and devastating form of cancer that is caused by exposure to asbestos. It affects thousands of people each year, with many individuals struggling to cope with the physical and emotional pain associated with the disease. Love quotes can be a powerful source of comfort for those affected by mesothelioma, as they can remind us about the power of love in the face of adversity.
• We, the mesothelioma community, need to educate people that asbestos is still around. It’s still a legal product in the United States. We need to make people realize that while we use it a lot less, it’s still out there.
• You have to be willing to give up the life you planned, and instead, greet the life that is waiting for you.
• Today will never come again. Be a blessing. Be a friend. Encourage someone. Take time to care. Let your words heal, and not wound.
• Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.-Rabindranath Tagore
• So classic lung cancer is about 170,000, numbers-wise, and mesothelioma is about 3,000. This originates from the lung surface and looks different during biopsy than classical lung cancer. It tends to grow locally so It doesn’t spread outside of the chest like the other lung cancers, Eventually, it kills the patient, by local growth. So it becomes a very big local problem, not from going outside.-ROMAN PEREZ-SOLER
• My family doctor called me just after 5 o’clock and 15 minutes later my wife, Pepper, and I were in his office. He said, “You have incurable cancer called mesothelioma. We don’t know what to do for it and you have six months to a year to live.” I was being told by doctors that they either couldn’t do anything for me or they could give me a couple of extra months, at best.-JIM MCHUTCHISON
• Mesothelioma cannot cripple love, it cannot shatter hope, it cannot conquer the spirit.
• Mesothelioma is a disease that could have been prevented. Many companies knew that exposure to asbestos was dangerous. Despite this knowledge, they hid the truth about the dangers of asbestos and continued to use asbestos in their products. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, it is likely that they would not be suffering from this terrible disease if the companies chose alternatives other than asbestos. The simple truth is that alternatives were available in most instances, but they were fractionally more expensive. -HARVEY I. PASS & AMY METULA
• There is no correlation between the amount of asbestos someone is exposed to and the link to mesothelioma cancer, which makes it extremely dangerous. The asbestos fibers are extremely strong and rigid, so as they are inhaled or swallowed, they become deeply caught in different linings of organs such as the lung, abdomen, and heart. As scar tissue forms, cancer cells can start to grow, and mesothelioma can start developing.-EMILY WALSH
• Told I was going to die, I never stopped fighting. I never stopped persisting and striving to free myself of this disease and to live every available moment with gusto–whether those moments could be measured by the handful or across a lifetime. Today, two exploratory surgeries, one major operation, five inpatient rounds of chemotherapy, twenty-five radiation sessions, and forty-one healing steps later, I am the world’s longest-living survivor of mesothelioma lung cancer. As word of my success with the program that helped bring me back from the precipice spread among Boston-area oncologists, surgeons, patient communities, and then worldwide, I began to receive phone calls from the newly diagnosed. How did you do it? they would ask, and I would tell them.-MARGIE LEVINE
• I may have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, but I am going to be a survivor of this disease. You can bet on that. Attitude is everything. It’s what gets you to the next step as a survivor.-JOANNE D.
• Our way is not soft grass; it’s a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upwards, forward, toward the sun.-Ruth Westheimer
• As early as the 1890s, the link between asbestos inhalation and lung-related disease was established. What makes mesothelioma a particularly tragic disease is the fact that it’s preventable because the cause is known.-ARTHUR FRANK
• Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.
• Although there have been great advances in diagnostic histopathology in the last three decades, there is still no single test that can reliably identify malignant mesothelial cells. The correct classification of pleural malignancy is important to ensure that appropriate treatment is given and, in the case of patients with occupational asbestos exposure, to support claims for industrial compensation.
• Complete microscopic resection of mesothelioma is so rare that it merited a case report within the last year. That may even have been the first documented case of cure.
• With Mesothelioma Awareness Day, the main goal is to try and educate the general public about the potential dangers asbestos can have and how mesothelioma cancer can develop. If we can stop one person from being wrongfully exposed, whether that be during a renovation, or by missing a clear warning sign, then we consider that a small win for all of us. The hope is that we can continue to educate so that someday we can help prevent any and all exposure to asbestos with the end goal being to eliminate future cases of mesothelioma.-EMILY WALSH
• The best way to protect yourself against mesothelioma, regardless of your genetic makeup, is to avoid asbestos, which can still be found in most homes built before 1980.-ALEX STRAUSS
• In May, 1956, I went to boot camp in Maryland, and shortly afterward, boarded the aircraft carrier, USS Intrepid. I was immediately sent down to the boiler room as a fireman apprentice. Every day I worked with asbestos. Little did I know that one day, just by doing my duty, I would come down with this dreadful disease.-NAVY FIREMAN
• In 1980, at the tender age of 50, after pursuing “alternative remedies” south of the border, McQueen died from malignant mesothelioma. Steve McQueen is easily the most famous person whose life was cut short by asbestos-induced mesothelioma. However, 25 years after his death, few people outside “Club Meso” associate the rare cancer with the “King of Cool.” Neither Steve, nor his wife Barbara, were eager to invite the world into their hospital or living room during their ordeal. A lawsuit was never filed. As a result, questions like: what cancer did he die from (was it “lung cancer” or “mesothelioma”) and what caused his cancer (was it asbestos? And if so, where was he exposed?), have continued to both evade easy answers and stimulate ponderous speculation.-ROGER WORTHINGTON
• When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds, and diamonds are made under pressure.-Peter Marshall