Cancer sucks. It’s a known fact. The whole saying “F* Cancer” has a meaning for everyone, but mine is slightly different. Not only has cancer taken people I love, but it has also given my family something special.
In 2015, my aunt was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 27 and had just finished culinary school. She fought hard, beat it and was cancer-free in 2016.
In April 2018, my oldest sister was diagnosed with leukemia. Six months later my family found out that my aunt’s cancer had come back and spread to many other parts of her body.
By January of 2019, my sister lost her battle with cancer. She was 25 and had four kids. Since I was younger when she had passed, there isn’t much that I remember about her fight. But I do remember that she smiled through the pain and was there for her kids.
Not only did my sister smile through her pain but my aunt did as well. While she was fighting cancer, for the second time, my family would ask her, “How are you doing?” to which she would always respond “I’m fine, how are you?”
“I’m fine” was always her answer. It wasn’t “I’m in pain,” or “I feel good.”
It was simply, “I’m fine.”
Even when we could tell she wasn’t fine or that she was having a bad day, without fail we’d ask her how she was and she’d say, “I’m fine.” She’d then ask about how we were doing, how school went or how our day was.
But she would never complain.
I’d sit there and have a conversation with her even when I knew she was struggling, but she would listen to me talk and she’d have a big smile on her face.
As her condition worsened and her health started to decline even more, she started to talk about her bucket list and the things she wanted to do before she died.
This led my family to host a trivia night to raise money for her to do the final things she wanted to do. We ended up raising $6,500. With this money, she went to both a Cardinal and a Blues game. She traveled to Orlando, Florida, and went to Disney World, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. She also saw the Peabody Ducks at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.
This trip gave her some of the last happy memories before she passed.
Two months after the trip, she lost her battle with cancer.
During the time my family and I were grieving the loss of my aunt, the idea of starting a foundation in her honor was brought up. The name we decided on was “Buckit! Just Live Courageously.”
The ‘Just Live Courageously’ comes from her initials, JLC.
The idea behind it was that we wanted to give other families of terminally ill cancer patients experiences that may not normally be given. We wanted to check off a part of a patient’s bucket list.
To do this, our foundation hosts a yearly trivia night on the first Saturday of November. The night has questions, raffles and a 50/50 contest. These trivia nights have provided us with enough money to help out two separate families. One family took a vacation to Utah and the other family asked for us to organize a Celebration of Life for 100 of her closest friends and family while she was still alive.
Not only has Buckit! sponsored these experiences, but we have created gift bags for cancer patients and gift cards for nurses. We have participated in the Susan G. Komen ‘More than Pink Walk’ where we had a booth that celebrated cancer patients and cancer survivors.
Through these last few years, not only has this foundation helped my family through our grief, but it has also brought us closer together. So yes F* Cancer for taking away the people I love, but also thank you for giving me, my family and the families we’ve helped something special and something good to remember about their loved ones who have passed from terminally ill cancer.
