By now, cancer may feel less like a question of what is it? and more like a question none of us want to ask: when will it come for me, or someone I love? Today, September 4, is Stand Up To Cancer Day, an annual awareness and fundraising effort focused on accelerating cancer research and bringing new treatments to patients. According to Stand Up To Cancer, www.standuptocancer.org, its mission is to “raise awareness and fund research to detect and treat cancers with the aspiration to cure all patients.” That mission matters. Here in the Northeast Kingdom, there is another part of the cancer conversation that matters just as much: what happens when cancer becomes your reality?
The data shows why this gets personal. According to the Vermont Department of Health (VDH), www.healthvermont.gov, “Roughly four out of ten people in Vermont will develop cancer in their lifetime.” Vermont sees approximately 3,900 new cancer diagnoses each year and approximately 1,300 cancer deaths. According to the National Cancer Institute and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s State Cancer Profiles, www.statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov, Vermont’s age-adjusted incidence rate for all cancer sites was 454.7 cases per 100,000 people compared with 467.1 per 100,000 nationally in the data set you referenced. Those numbers are not simply statistics on a page; behind every diagnosis is a person, a family, a workplace, a set of plans that may suddenly have to change and a new set of questions that need answers.
For many of us, healthcare is also personal. We know our doctors. We know our nurses. We may even recognize the people behind the desk when we check in. We trust the team that has cared for our families for years and maybe even generations. Then suddenly, cancer can change the map. A diagnosis may mean navigating consultations with specialists outside our immediate community, additional testing, surgery, treatment or clinical trials somewhere else. It can mean driving hours for appointments, learning how to navigate a new healthcare system and meeting an entirely new team at a time when life already feels uncertain. For someone who has spent years receiving care close to home, that transition can feel overwhelming and incredibly vulnerable.
Yet traveling for cancer care (or any specialized care) never means leaving your local healthcare team behind. According to North Country Hospital (NCH), www.northcountryhospital.org, “We are dedicated to bringing the latest medical expertise to our community, keeping your care close to home.” In a rural community, that can mean understanding that excellent healthcare is not always about providing every specialized service under one roof. It can mean knowing when a patient needs additional expertise, helping arrange testing, communicating with specialists, coordinating information, monitoring a patient’s health between appointments and helping patients and families understand what comes next. Sometimes, it simply means being the familiar faces and trusted resources when a patient returns home.
These relationships matter when the road gets complicated. At NCH, “We honor the trust you place in us by building a caring relationship, one that respects your unique needs and preferences.” We describe a tradition of developing “life-long relationships” with patients throughout the NEK, and those relationships become particularly meaningful when a patient’s care requires stepping outside the community. Cancer care is not always about finding one place that can do everything, sometimes it is about having a team that knows when to keep care close and when to travel. This is not a failure of local healthcare. That is local healthcare working the way it should and does in many parts of the country.
There is another side of cancer care that doesn’t always make the headlines: the practical burden that comes with a diagnosis. There are appointments, transportation, time away from work, medications, insurance questions, deductibles and bills, all while someone is trying to process what is happening to their health. Larger organizations and outside resources can be valuable but knowing where to start can sometimes feel like another task added to an already overwhelming list. At NCH, patients who need help understanding available financial assistance can contact the hospital’s Financial Navigator at 802-334-3210, ext. 4204. Financial assistance information and applications are available through the hospital, because when someone is worried about a diagnosis, the last thing they should have to wonder is how they will navigate the next appointment, the next bill or the next step. If you are not local to NCH, ask your healthcare provider what financial and patient-support resources may be available in your community; you can also call 2-1-1 for information about available resources.
Stand Up To Cancer asks us to think about the future of cancer treatment, research and the possibility of better outcomes. Living in a community like ours also gives us another perspective: the future of cancer care is not only about what happens in a research laboratory or at a major cancer center. It is also about what happens here, at home, when someone receives a diagnosis, when a family needs help understanding the next step, when a patient returns from treatment and when the healthcare team continues to walk beside them. From survivors and caregivers to healthcare providers and those currently living with cancer, eventually the question becomes less about “What is this diagnosis?” and more about “How do we move forward?” Sometimes moving forward means “standing up,” and taking small steps, other time it means traveling much farther than expected. Either way, cancer may change the map, but it does not mean you have to travel alone.
As we reflect on cancer today, let’s remember that this isn’t about someone else, it’s about all of us. There are so many ways for anyone to give back from walks and runs and even donate food to your local food shelf. We do what we can, when we can, to help make sure we help each other stand. Never hesitate to reach out if you need that support. Cancer can be isolating, and life may never feel the same, which is why we need to stand up to it together, even when it becomes personal.