After several days of a nagging illness and failed antibiotics, Brian Eisenmenger went back to his doctor after he fell apart on a normally-routine, 4-mile run.
Much to his surprise, the 40-year-old Winfield resident learned after a battery of tests at that visit, there was a spot on his lung, which had also collapsed.
As a non-smoker who was in the best shape of his life, Eisenmenger was shocked to learn he had stage three lung cancer.
But, he?s not alone. According to the American Lung Association, more than 10 percent of lung cancer cases aren?t related to smoking.
On Tuesday, more than a year later, Eisenmenger joined other survivors and family members of lung cancer victims at the second Shine a Light on Lung Cancer Vigil at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.
The vigil, one of 74 across the country, was planned with the Lung Cancer Alliance in conjunction with Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
?It was a very surreal moment,? Eisenmenger said of the time he learned of his diagnosis. Eisenmenger, who is in remission, said he could offer a message of hope to others who have received the terrifying diagnosis of cancer.
Barb Sorgatz, of Glen Ellyn, was diagnosed four and a half years ago.
?I?m not a smoker ? how did I get lung cancer?? she recalled asking her doctor after she heard the news. It was then Sorgatz discovered radon levels in her home were five times what the Environmental Protection Agency recognizes as safe.
Now, Sorgatz is a member of several advocacy groups and worked to get the Radon Awareness Act passed in the Illinois Legislature. She urges everyone to test the levels of radon ? an odorless, colorless gas ? in their home. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, second to smoking.
Karen Imhof, lung cancer coordinator at St. Alexius, said the purpose of the vigil is to alert the public to the various causes of lung cancer.
?Smoking is not the only thing,? she said.
Several speakers at Tuesday?s event, including state Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, also voiced their support of increasing cancer research funding, specifically for lung cancer.
Lung cancer kills more people than breast cancer and other cancers that typically receive more funding, Imhof said.
Kathy Reese, of Elgin, received her lung cancer diagnosis two and a half years ago, but is in remission now. Before Tuesday?s vigil, Reese said there?s negative judgment attached to many lung cancer patients.
?There?s a tremendous stigma attached to lung cancer,? she said. ?Because you smoked, you brought the cancer on yourself. No one intentionally wants to be ill.?
Reese said she smoked for 20 years before she got sick, but at the time she started smoking she didn?t realize the dangers.
?If we?re going to make progress, we need to stop pointing fingers,? she said.
Jane Cosentino, lung navigator with Alexian Brothers Health System and an oncology nurse, detailed many advancements in the field of lung cancer treatment during Tuesday?s vigil.
?This is an exciting time in the oncology community,? she said, asking survivors and family members to contact their representatives in Springfield and Washington to ask for more research funding.
Eisenmenger stressed it?s important for newly-diagnosed patients to put the troubling lung cancer statistics into perspective, because they don?t include recent advancements in treatment ? and sometimes are five years behind.
?Five years is light years for the technology that comes up,? he said. ?We are not statistics.?
Source: http://triblocal.com/hoffman-estates/2011/11/02/lung-cancer-patients-families-unite/
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