"Mom, What is Cancer?"

“Mom, what is cancer?” Lydia asked innocently as we made our way to walk in the Relay for Life event. It is hard to answer that question. There are so many things that cancer is.

“It is a disease, a sickness,” I answered.

“Can I catch it?” I hear the fear in her little voice, a fear that reflects how most of us feel about cancer.

“No…” How do you explain the complexity of cancer to a seven-year-old? I am not a doctor, or a scientist. I do my best. “The smallest pieces of your body, they are called cells. Your whole body is made up of different cells. There are skin cells, heart cells, blood cells, brain cells. Every once in a while, the body makes a mistake cell. It’s called a mutated cell. In cancer, that cell starts making lots of cells just like itself, cells that can’t do a job like the healthy ones do and they get in the way of the good cells doing their job. Those are cancer cells.”

“Can I get cancer?”

“Yes.”

“Will I die if I get cancer?”

“Maybe…but not everyone who gets cancer dies. That’s why we are walking, so doctors and scientists can find better ways to get rid of cancer and the people with cancer can live a long happy life.”

“Do we know people with cancer?”

“Your Aunt Christine had thyroid cancer…and she beat it.”

“Aunt Christine had cancer?!?”

Relay for Life is many things for many people. For our church it is a way to add our feet to our prayers, and to bring transformation to the world we live in. It is a way to say we walk with those who suffer and struggle. For me this year, Relay for Life was a chance to talk about something scary with my child. Because I am a pastor, Lydia sees and hears about death a lot more than most kids her age. Often times, she asked why they died, and some of her favorite church-people have died from cancer. Relay this year allowed me to say, “Not everyone dies from this…and part of that is because of what we are doing today.”

Thank You, Relay for Life, for giving me that opportunity.