I often think of the wife of Dana Reeve the wife of Christopher Reeve, who in May 1995 had a horrible accident while riding a horse, followed by 10 years of misery totally unable to move. He was an inspiration to everyone but what he went through was far beyond we have ever seen any major celebrity have to endure for so long a period of time. Soon after his death, Christopher Reeve's wife Dana contracted lung cancer in her mid-40's and died a short time after. Most amazing is Dana never smoked. I consider this story, along with the JFK Jr. Tragedy in 1999, by far the 2 worst celebrity tragedies of all time. A distant third would be Princess Diana's death in France in 1997.
So how did Dana Reeve die in her mid-40's of horrible lung cancer, when she didn't even smoke? The theory is that Dana was a very good lounge singer and because of all the second hand smoke, she had cancer cells in her body for a long period of time. The following theory is that the cancer cells like this come alive when the body is greatly weakened by a long period of grief over a horrible tragedy and great stress which would happen after Christopher Reeve finally died after 10 long years. I am not a doctor, but this has always been my theory about smoking, or second hand smoke and cancer, which is the scourge of humanity and has been for hundreds of years. When the body is greatly weakened by stress, grief and great periods of depression for a long period of time the cancer cells become alive again and the spouse, or the person under stress and grief dies. The Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve story is a story worthy of a great movie, which I would love to be able to write one day. What Dana Reeve had to witness and survive, seeing her husband in that condition for so long is an amazing tribute to her strength as a person.
My mother smoked for many years, but she gave it up 20 years ago. A little less than 3 years ago, my father died of Cancer at age 84, and even though he was far from a good person or husband, my mother was married to him for over 50 years. Three months ago, my mother was diagnosed with Cancer, and a few weeks later she is in a Hospice at age 79. The horror is that it seems that Cancer cells are always in your body, if your smoke, if you're exposed to second hand smoke, or for other reasons. I have seen people go through great stressful events and die soon after from Cancer many times over the years. The pattern seems to be very strong and repeats many times over.
Will we ever see a cure for cancer in our lifetime? Does this world wide scourge of humanity make far too much money to ever want a cure? I don't have an answer to this question, but if human life on this planet is mostly just about money and because of this money, nobody cares about horrible human suffering because of a cancer, then there is something very wrong with this earth we all call home.
