‘Pain, fear, scans, treatment, Generation Cancer!’
Ladonna Wilson-Castle of Raymore, Missouri, is battling lung cancer.“March 31, 2014, my doctor told me I have stage IV lung cancer and advised me I had 8–16 months to live. I'm looking at a year. I'm still here and (not) planning to die for 20 years. I've responded well to Tarceva, and my cancer has greatly reduced. I have short-term and long-term goals. My short-term goals are very specific and go out no longer than six months (maybe closer to four). One of my plans is to help coordinate a barbeque at Gilda's Club KC. That is two months out. Four months out is a summer vacation with my brother, sister, mom and all our children. If I make it a year, I'm going to try to go to Germany and Poland to retrace the steps of the Jews from the ghettos to the concentration camps. I need to try to understand that. How can human beings be so cruel? Long term, 20 years, I'm going to write a best seller!
“Dying for 20 years! Living with this disease!!! Something else to wrap your head around.”
Ladonna’s six words to describe her cancer experience are “Pain, fear, scans, treatment, Generation Cancer!” Share your six words here.
Ladonna’s words, which were shared digitally through Tell KC, have been lightly edited for clarity.
As part of a local reporting project around the upcoming Ken Burns documentary series, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, KCPT presents Cancer in KC.
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Ladonna Wilson-Castle and her son Josh just before she began chemo. "I knew my image would change. I wanted that moment etched in time," she said.
Photo by Ladonna Wilson-Castle, submitted