Cancer. In my opinion, its the worst six letter word in the English language. Its a word that can drastically change a person's life forever. Its a word that can interrupt everything from future dreams to relationships with family members. Let's face it. All in all, its a word that just sucks.
According to the American Cancer Society, 1,529,560 people have been diagnosed with some form of cancer in the United States. Let's think about that number for a minute. That number merely represents the number of people diagnosed. It does not encompass the number of people effected by that awful six-letter word.
For every person diagnosed with cancer, its safe to estimate that there are at least five others that are also significantly effected.
1,529,560 x 5 = 7,647,800
That's more than seven and half million people whose lives are changed! And five is a safe number. The diagnosis of cancer usually effects many more than five individuals.
In my opinion, and from my experience, I have found that the siblings of those cancer victims are often forgotten. The siblings who are just as scared as anyone else are often pushed to the back burner. This is not a complaint, because obviously it is what needs to happen. These siblings wouldn't have it any other way--the attention needs to be given to the one with cancer. However, there needs to be somewhere for these siblings to turn. So why not turn to each other? There are thousands of websites out there for cancer victims. Even for parents of cancer victims. But what about the siblings?
We decided we wanted this to change. We wanted somewhere safe for siblings of cancer victims, or even children of cancer victims, to be able to turn to. A place for them to vent their frustrations and anger with people who understood. A place to share exciting moments or special experiences they have had while being sideline fighters themselves.
