This will be the seventh year that Len Schwartz has walked with LUNGevity for lung cancer research and awareness in New York City. Len recently chatted with LUNGevity about how he has been affected by lung cancer and his connection with LUNGevity.
I lost my beloved wife, Cyndi, to lung cancer 6-1/2 years ago. She had always been terrified of cancer because she had lost her own mother when she was 13 to pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, by the time the doctors discovered that Cyndi had lung cancer, the cancer had already spread to her brain. She had two surgeries for that, but she still didn’t make it. The statistics for lung cancer are terrible. Other cancers, like breast cancer and prostate cancer, have much higher survival rates, and that’s because those cancers can be detected earlier. That’s what lung cancer needs–an easy test that will catch it early on. I am happy to know that some of the LUNGevity researchers are working on early detection.
I found out about LUNGevity after Cyndi died and my daughter Jennifer went online to research lung cancer organizations. She discovered LUNGevity the first year that LUNGevity was sponsoring a walk in New York, and she signed up for it. Well, I wouldn’t let her do it by herself because that was a tough time for us. So we got together a group that included my daughter, some cousins, my wife’s sister, a few of my daughter’s friends, and me, and we did the walk. My daughter Lisa couldn’t join us the first year, but she made a donation in Cyndi’s name. She and my sons-in-law have since joined us. We have walked every year since, and my grandchildren will be walking this year, too! I have made the promise that I will do this walk until I am physically unable to.
Why? Because the research they do will make a big difference in so many people’s lives, and because the people of LUNGevity have touched my life. Everybody there is just so nice. The emotional support I continue to get from them and the camaraderie have made them family to me. I am retired now, and this year I am on the Planning Committee for Breathe Deep NYC. The committee is all volunteers, not paid fundraisers. Everybody on the committee is there because they have been touched by lung cancer. They are an amazing group!
LUNGevity makes me hopeful for the future of those who receive the terrible diagnosis of lung cancer.