There’s a stigma surrounding lung cancer — a lot of people even feel like they deserve the disease because they are a smoker, or they were once a smoker. First of all, no one deserves cancer. And … lung cancer can happen to anyone.
Millie Torchia, who has stage 4 lung cancer, wants to get rid of that stigma. “My first thought, like everyone, was how could I have cancer? Especially because I don’t smoke … even if you smoke, you shouldn’t be punished. Everyone who has lungs can get lung cancer.”
Read More It’s important to be aware of symptoms, even if you think you could never be at risk for lung cancer. Millie says she began to have shoulder pain, and assumed it was because she was carrying around a heavy purse. After going to the doctor to get checked out, she found out she had cancer. Throughout her whole journey with cancer, Millie has worked hard to not give up hope — despite her stage 4 diagnosis. “You have to keep on going, you can’t give up,” Millie says. “You have to grab on … for me, it’s been of course my daughters because I want to see them. I want to make sure that they don’t see that I’m in bed and giving up.”
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