Please share a volunteer experience and it's impact on your life

“What defines a person?” Some say it is a person’s financial achievement, their children, or how far they progress in their careers. I do not agree with any of this. I believe that a person’s crowning achievement is what they do for others. I reached this mentality at a fundraising event entitled “Playing for a Cure”.

            To begin with, I have been a Playing for a Cure volunteer for five years. My sixth grade band director; Jamie Young; was diagnosed with cancer and as she recovered she began a band competition to fund lung cancer research. My father is also a lung cancer survivor; he was diagnosed in 2001. Therefore, when Mrs. Young invited me to participate I gladly accepted.  At the first competition I received shocking news: Lung cancer kills more people than breast, prostate and cervical cancer combined. Yet, it receives the least amount of research funding. I was shocked. How could something so deadly go so underfunded? Lung cancer is so deadly because there is no early screening process and many patients are often misdiagnosed until it is too late. Mrs. Young was told she had pneumonia and when the doctors thought of lung cancer she only had a 15% survival rate. My father’s chest pains where dismissed time after time by countless doctors. They had to remove part of his lung to get rid of the cancer. My hope is that through our efforts at Playing for a Cure more people will research this deadly disease and create an early screening process; and/or better train doctors to recognize the signs of lung cancer early on.

            My second year as a Paying for a Cure volunteer I met a man named Tony Yeargin who was a lung cancer survivor.  He spoke to my band during our warm up about the blessing of life and about how his lung cancer experience had changed his life.  The next year, Mr. Yeargin did not participate. The following year, I learned that his cancer had relapsed and he had not survived; taking his place as a volunteer was his daughter, Laurie. Laurie and I immediately became friends. Her father was named Tony just like mine and we were both “daddy’s girls”. She told me that she was originally a journalism major but switched to nursing after her father became sick and she dealt with impolite nurses with no respect for her father’s illness. She also became very close to my father, finding within him things she remembered from her dad. She told me that seeing me and my father together eased the pains of losing her father. I am hoping that we continue to build our network of families like mine and Laurie’s who know the pains and hardships of having or losing someone with lung cancer.

            This year, my fifth year, Mrs. Young asked me to speak to the bands about why I appreciated what they were doing; the same thing Mr. Yeargin did my second year. It was a very honorable task to me and this year was the best year yet. Many students were surprised to see me up there advocating a change. I made sure to tell them about the underfunding of lung cancer research and how much I appreciated the fact that they gave up their Saturday to help our cause. It was truly a blessing to be able to show gratitude to the students for being there and explain to them how their efforts where truly making a difference. I was able to speak no only on behalf of myself and my family but also on the behalf of all other lung cancer patients and their families. 

            My hope for Playing for a Cure is that we continue to raise Lung Cancer awareness and continue to build a network of survivors and their families as well as the families of those deceased together. Every year more and more bands, volunteers, and survivors join our network. I really believe in this event because I feel that the number one cancer killer deserves serious research. If breast cancer and prostate cancer can have a early screening process; lung cancer should too. It is now time to begin research and try to find the cancer before it costs a person his/her lung like it did my father. It is a shame that the number one killer does not have pink ribbons or commercials to represent it. No one thinks of stopping lung cancer; however; anyone who has experienced it or seen a person experience it can tell you that it needs to be stopped. Awareness needs to be raised on this issue and many other issues; without awareness there is no hope for change. “Knowledge is a weapon” (Terry Goodkind); and it is time we arm ourselves with knowledge and fight off things such as lung cancer. I have put myself behind Playing for a Cure one hundred percent. I go to all pre-event meetings, help set up and I am there from start to finish on the big day every single year. I do this because I really believe in this event and the message that it sends. Playing for a Cure sends out a message of hope. When a person who was only given a 15% survival rate and a person who lost part of his lung are both present with huge smiles; it is message to all of us; a message of miracles and reminders to never give up regardless of what doctors tell you.

    Playing for a Cure has taught me that doing for the good of other people will always touch at least one person in a way you can never imagine. Jackie Robinson once said "A life is not important except in its impact on others lives.” Truer words have never been spoken; a person’s life when they die is not measured by who they are, how much money they had or even what they did. Rather it is defined by the people they helped, and who they inspired. While there maybe no definite answer to my opening question, I believe that service to others is the ultimate accomplishment and therefore a person’s ultimate definition.