By Jesselyn Bickley

Jesselyn Bickley and her grandmother.

Jesselyn Bickley and her grandmother.

Cancer: It’s one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. It takes many forms and assesses its aggressiveness differently on each victim.

Some people beat cancer down but are not left without scars from their battle. Some people, a lot of people, try to fight but cancer claims them in the end. Others are never given the opportunity to fight, as if they were merely a stopping point along cancer’s never-ending journey.

My 70-year-old grandma was diagnosed mid-January just this year with Stage 4 liver cancer. They told her the minimal survival rate, but said there was hope…until they did more scans. More testing revealed she had also had advanced lung cancer. The survival time frame grew smaller but hope remained for a year of life.

The day she went to start chemotherapy the doctors feared the cancer had already spread to her brain due to her confusion and lack of balance. It was a brain infection. The doctor told my mom chemotherapy would be “inhumane and unethical” at that point. Again, her life span narrowed from six months to three weeks.

Her condition worsened rapidly and she took her last breath within six days of her latest diagnosis.

In a matter of months this cancer developed, attacked and ultimately claimed my grandmother’s major organs, her personality and her life.

The funds raised during Relay for Life go to support cancer patients and toward research to combat cancer.

Please consider donating to Relay for Life or forming a team. The money raised could help save someone you know or even you one day. Visit www.relayforlife.com for more information.