I've been a national oral cancer support volunteer for almost 14 years now.
We meet once a month in Scottsdale AZ to try to help folks going thru surgery, radiation and chemo which can be tough when it's in the mouth and throat .
A number of folks who survive can never eat by mouth again.
We have one member, a good friend who tries to help others, will have to use a food pump for the rest of his life and he jokes that they put leeches in his mouth after surgery and he swallowed one of them.
We have another member who comes with his wife every month and his tongue and the front of his jaw have been removed.
He is still upbeat and the only way he can talk with us is by writing on a pad or his wife will speak for him.
I am a very lucky man, mine was caught early.
At the meeting as a co-facilitator, I get to sit between 3 speech swallowing therapists who are angels among us.
I have been called "an idiot who wears his medical condition like a crown" by a certain Grumbler who will not be named.
It's very easy to sit at a computer and make a stupid comment like that.
We will have the once a year walk coming up at the end of March and I will be manning a table and walking with dental students, survivors, doctors and families and kids.
HPV is one of the leading causes of Oral cancer now and within a few years, 97% of people will be carrying this virus and young folks can get the vaccine which is a must.
There are 125 associated groups with us nationwide and there are 3 in the Massachusetts area...