Skin Cancer Cont'd

My mother is fair skinned and blond.She is having a few skin cancers on her face worked with in the last few years. She is 85.Dad was dark,dark,dark. In a lot of his pictures,he appears African American.I have always heard that the dark skinned people do not have as much trouble with the skin cancers as the fair skinned people. Dad was a farmer and a bulldozer operator, and lived in the sun,but as far as we know he never had skin cancer,although cancer,of some kind, killed him. He had a huge tumor in his chest,which entwined around many vital body parts,heart,lungs,bronchial tubes,etc.,thus killing him.He would have been 84 in three months more.He died in September of 2001.


I have one sister who has had breast cancer about 10 years ago,plus she had a small cancer in the corner of one eye.She had the spot removed and had a skin graft. They removed 1/2 of one eyelid in the process,but replaced it with skin from behind her ear. As far as I know, to this day,she is cancer free. To my knowledge,no other siblings,and there are 9 of us,has had any kind of cancer,that we know of,but I'd be willing to wager,we all have the basal cell carcinomas.

I do have a brother in law who has had bladder cancer for several years.They are keeping it in check with regular treatment, so far.He is just now retirement age,but still working part time.

I think heredity plays a big part in whether or not you get many forms of cancer,but then we do have some control over whether or not we get skin cancers. There are so many kinds of cancer.I truly believe that the things we ingest,whether it be through the water we drink,the air we breathe,or the food we eat,plays a big part in the equation.There are so many chemicals and the like,being used in every aspect of our lives,they are bound to be doing some damage of some kinds to our cells.Not only showing up as cancer, but also in many other malfunctions of various body systems,too numerous to list.I believe many of us have dormant cancer cells within our bodies,and stress plays a big part in bringing it out many times.I have known too many folks who have very high stress jobs,who have contracted cancer.

These are only my opinions and points of view on the subject,but we all must agree that Cancer is a very ugly,scary, and illusive disease,and the treatments for it are equally so. It can raise it's head any where, any time, and it knows no bound when it comes to age. No one is totally exempt.