Homeless Cancer Researcher/Author Needs Help
I
begrudgingly write this, but somehow think it’s necessary. Yes I am homeless and have been for seven
years. Even though during four of
those seven years I was getting a Master’s Degree in Liberal Arts, I was still
not in my home, but merely renting a room. I am a cancer researcher and in my mind have been since I
was thirteen years old. Now I’m
sixty and have a long story to tell.
I’ll deposit the short version here and leave the more detailed account
in my autobiography, which is basically already written and called, “Terminal
Cancer.” More about that later,
but right now I need to explain exactly why I’m writing this. The title is accurate. At the moment I do live in a homeless
shelter and I do need help because at the end of this month (January, 2014)
I’ll have to leave, but will have nowhere to go. I’m pretty sure I’ll figure out what to do when that time
comes; I always do. The “help”
part of the title really has to do with the fact that I need help having people
understand me, what I do, and why I’m homeless.
Let’s start at the
beginning when I was 13 and after having really understood what a cell is
decided to become a cancer researcher.
All of the decisions made from that point on were guided by that
desire. From pre-med in high
school to a science major at Villanova University, the goal was the same: do
cancer research. Landed my first
cancer research job as a Research Assistant at the prestigious Wistar Institute
on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus and from there to the Hospital of
the University of Pennsylvania where for 15 years I worked as a Research
Associate for this wonderful oncologist who looked after patients with the skin
cancer melanoma. Our laboratory was
the first in this country to recreate in the lab the exact cellular immune
response to cancerous cells that was seen in patients. Eventually I received my PhD in
Immunology at Penn and the cancer immunity model we designed, which was part of
my thesis was used with other data to create a new type of cancer therapy
called cancer immunotherapy. After
another 15 years of doing mostly grant-funded research the funds and cancer
research positions became scarce just after the war in Iraq started. So after 30 years of laboratory
research I decided to make a decision, which was either to continue to write
grants that were accepted, but not funded and keep looking a research positions,
or do something else.
Because of my
considerable cancer immunity knowledge I decided to become an author and write
books about cancer. I had suffered
from separation anxiety when I changed positions after 15 years in the same
lab. I didn’t want to experience
it again so that meant I had to leave my old life behind, which included my
home. The books I’m publishing are
both non-fiction and fiction. The
non-fiction books (one published in 2011 and one in 2014) are about immunity to
cancer. The fiction books are
narrative fiction novels about people and cancer in the future. One of each has been published so far
and two more books should be published this year. All of this has to do with the fact that during those 30
years I got to know well over 500 cancer patients and their families. I had become a cancer interpreter to
cancer patients that I not only met in the hospitals where I did research, but
also patients that were my family members or those of friends. Because I had a basic understanding of
the types of cancer and the associated treatments, I would often be asked to
talk to the patient and or their physician. Then I would go back to the patient and family members to
help them understand in laymen’s terms what was going on.
It’s hard to
explain what I’ve seen and experienced through doing this, but I do know it is
a part of this life-long mission I’ve been on. I don’t think about not having money or a home because of
this. I do want others who don’t
understand me and what I do to realize that cancer is what I do regardless of
what I have to go through. It
pales in comparison to some of the things I’ve seen in my lifetime as far as
cancer is concerned. My thing is:
Don’t worry about me, but worry about either you getting cancer or that patient
you know and if researchers can develop even more advanced cancer therapies in
order to make it a survivable disease.
This is not really about me, but everyone else because anyone can get
this disease and until it’s turned into a livable chronic condition we can live
with, the suffering and death will never end. This is the help I need. I can take care of the rest it on my own. The only other thing I have to say is:
“Google me.”
