Stop Developing Drugs for the Cancer That Killed My Mother
The squeak in my mom’s voice seemed strange, but not worrisome. When we spoke on the phone, she sounded like she had inhaled helium. An initial doctor’s evaluation revealed nothing. And it wasn’t until many weeks later, when she started having trouble swallowing one night at dinner, that alarm bells started to go off for our family.
She went to the drop-in health clinic on the small island in British Columbia where my family has a vacation home. The nurse looked at her swollen neck, felt a lump, and told her to rush to the ferry—she needed to get to the nearest hospital right away.
From there, she would have to move to a hospital in Vancouver, where my parents live. While my dad drove back to the vacation home to collect their clothes and other belongings, the results of my mother’s biopsy came back. A tumor the size of a tennis ball had grown in her throat, and it was cancerous. I
