Mother of the Year Award

Hey all you awesome Semi-colons!

This letter is in response to ACS awarding Sarah Ferguson the Mother of the Year Award and some comments the Duchess made that pushed some buttons but could be construed as rather innocuous in regards to cancer and health. IMO they were either arrogant or ignorant; and neither have a place in cancer education IMO. Now, it could be that they were taken out of context since the article was not very long, but it gives the ACS a dubious distinction. Personally, I am disappointed in the choice....


To Jose, Dana, and Greta,


What a bruhaha going on. It's been a royal ruckus to be sure. And rightly so since Mothers are sacred and not to be taken lightly. Same with cancer. So imagine our collective disappointment when someone with no obvious ties to a personal journey with cancer is to be our ACS Award Winner.

I am not about to judge the Duchess of York's mothering or her health and weight issues, questionable as they may seem, but I do wonder how this honor bestowed upon her came about in the first place. Can you please give me a list of past Mother of the Year Award recipients? Perhaps there is a pattern or agenda of which I am not familiar.


I would suggest that future Mother of the Year Award recipients actually have a personal relationship with cancer and not just an empty celebrity status and who may not have the best character track record representing an enormous and growing community of survivors and their families. Consider that the majority of us do not have access to opulent resources for survival, but spend a good part of the day, weeks, years, supporting ACS and each other. They are my personal heroes.


It saddens me that ACS stoops to celebrity notoriety to promote their/our cause. When it is WE who are actually in the trenches daily living with cancer in humility and humbleness, and many in fear, and where there is no room for arrogant assumptions. I know from whence I speak. I assumed I was vaccinated from cancer by my exercise and healthful eating. I had not ingested "soda pop" for over 20 years when I was diagnosed nor did I eat junk food. And yet, I still got colon cancer. While I agree wholeheartedly that diet and lifestyle can contribute to getting cancer and therefore is of utmost importance in the healing of it also, I hesitate to look to someone like Fergie as the Poster Child, I mean, Mother, to represent ACS.

I hope ACS reconsiders in the future and actually thinks about all of those who walk the Relays raising the money with their actions, who suffer the chemo that ravages their bodies, who nurse our babies in hope that cancer will not return and snatch us from them, who walk the hospital halls with parts of our bodies missing trying to cope with our diagnoses and prognoses, who offer comfort to our companions while they tearfully struggle with the nightmarish prospect of losing a partner, who lay in bed healing while little ones adjust to having mommy sick for days on end, who venture out with wigs or scarves braving the stares and questioning eyes filled with pity, who get up and go off to work to help pay the bills after having their chemo infusions. Those are the Mothers of the Year that ACS should be honoring whenever and wherever possible.

ACS has missed its chance. For shame.

peace, emily who is mother to five, Stage III colon cancer survivor for 5 1/2 years living it daily among other women/mothers who live it daily too.