Marcia Cross Cancer Advocacy & Message For Valentine's Day
- Desperate Housewives actress and anal cancer survivor Marcia Cross shares an important reminder of self-reflection (especially for single people out there) for Valentine’s Day, honors all loved ones who have touched her heart: friends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, teachers.
- Cross talked about her HPV-related anal cancer in a previously recorded video with SurvivorNet: “I didn’t have any symptoms. Never had an irregular pap smear. I had never heard of HPV until my husband. We both probably carried it for most of our lives.”
- "We all have the anal canal, we all use it every day so it's time that we move on from the stigma," says anal cancer advocate Justine Almada.
For people dealing with a cancer diagnosis, telling someone you love them is enormously meaningful.
Read More“I like to think about Valentine's Day as a time to express my love to those in my heart,” Cross writes on her Instagram page with a photo of a pink rose. “Try it. If you follow that path it will be a joy filled holiday,” she writes. “One of the beautiful lessons I learned from years of being single.” Cross adds hashtags with the words “love, friends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, teachers.”
View this post on Instagram
Cancer in a Marriage
Cross and Mahoney, who works as a private wealth advisor, were married in 2006 in San Gabrel, California. Mahoney was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2009, while Cross was diagnosed with anal cancer in early 2018. They both are now cancer free. Cross has told SurvivorNet about the challenges they have faced. "Dealing with cancer in a marriage, it's complicated. It takes a lot of patience and love.”
Related: Overcoming Their Fears Together How Marcia Cross and Her Husband Got Through Their Cancers
The Desperate Housewives actress has also been vocal about what she says caused their cancers: HPV, a sexually transmitted infection that has been proven to cause certain types of cancer like throat cancer and cervical cancer in women. Cross has been an advocate for reducing the stigma from anal cancer, and HPV, which is extremely common.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Anal Cancer and HPV
Talking to SurvivorNet previously about her cancer, Cross said, “I didn’t have any symptoms. Never had an irregular pap smear. “I had never heard of HPV until my husband. We both probably carried it for most of our lives.”
Cross feels that most of the people her age, a couple of generations younger and older, have never heard about it. So she has decided to be as vocal as possible about what she went through. She wants to make it feel okay to say ‘I have anal cancer.’ “I realized that, for some reason, this is our last taboo, our last body part that we just haven’t talked about. And people should revere their anuses. Because we have one beautiful anus. And we want it to be healthy. And it does an amazing job for us for our entire lives.”
Actor Marcia Cross Says She's Lucky to Have Beaten Cancer, but the Feeling of Safety Is Gone
Anal Cancer Advocacy
Justine Almada, Executive Director and Co-founder of the Anal Cancer Foundation, started doing something about the stigma of anal cancer after losing her mom to the disease. This cancer is less talked about because of where it is in the body, and like Cross, she has made it her mission to change that. "Four issues became the cornerstone of our organization prevention, screening, treatment, and patient empowerment. And in the years since mom died, we've made a tremendous impact."
She explained the importance of a peer-to-peer matching program, which is especially beneficial for anal cancer patients. "Many people are afraid to tell their work colleagues, their family members, even their children what kind of cancer they have simply because it's a part of the body that people don't like to talk about the anal canal," she said. "We all have the anal canal, we all use it every day so it's time that we move on from the stigma."
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
