The COVID-19 pandemic reminds all of us each morning “to get out bed and be grateful for the family surrounding you,” Lisa Guerrero, Inside Edition‘s Chief Investigative Correspondent, tells SurvivorNet. Guerrero lost her mother to lymphoma at age 8. She was raised by her single dad who, years later, faced cancer again as her stepmother, a survivor, also battled lymphoma
Read MoreMy mother moved here at 16 & died at 29. (I was 8) Her proudest day? When she became a US citizen #ImmigrantsDaughter #NationOfImmigrants ???????? pic.twitter.com/DVGApw8gEf
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“My inspirations have always been my mother and father,” she told FemCity in an interview about her #BeingBrave campaign. “My mom, Lucy Guerrero, was an immigrant from Chile. She came to this country as a teenager and learned English at 17.”
Guerrero launched the campaign to inspire women and young people to find their inner superhero.
“I want to encourage people to speak up and to stand up for ourselves and those who've been marginalized,” she says. “We can all find a moment every day to try to be more courageous.”
“My mother was a strong, beautiful, passionate woman who believed in social justice and fought for immigrants’ rights. She died (of lymphoma) at 29 years old. As an adult, I took her last name to honor her and so that
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people would connect me to my Latino heritage. I think it's important for young girls to see a Guerrero on television every night,” Guerrero says.
Now, family is everything to her.
“My father, Walter Coles, was a social worker and fundraiser for the Salvation Army and other non-profits. He has spent his entire career raising money for the hungry and homeless. He's a brilliant man who earned his Masters Degree at the University of Chicago and could have gone into business making a lot of money for himself — but instead, he chose to use his gifts to help others,” she says, proudly. “He is my best friend and has been my rock after the loss of my mother.”
Together, they have supported their loved-ones through cancer and have remained by each other’s side through it all. Guerrero speaks to her father daily and explains how important life and family are.
A supporter of the Lymphoma Research Foundation, Guerrero will emcee the LRF's 25th Anniversary Gala will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. The event will bring together key leaders from the lymphoma community for an evening of celebration and tribute.
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
In the U.S., about 74,000 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are diagnosed each year, accounting for about 4.2% of cancer cases, according to the National Cancer Institute. Patients who are diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma have about a 72% chance of surviving for five years after the diagnosis.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is actually a collection of different lymphoma diseases, according to Dr. Catherine Diefenbach, at NYU Langone Health.
"Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is not one disease, it's many diseases," she says. "And there are over 68 kinds of lymphoma. For this reason, it's very important that if you have a diagnosis of lymphoma, you're treated by a lymphoma specialist."
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