Never Lose Hope

In July 2009 I received a diagnosis of stage 4 ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer. I never smoked ... how could this be? This is happening to many of us and we cannot relate to anything that would understandably have caused this. The lifespan for individuals with this diagnosis is not favorable, but to date I have survived six years. Two years with conventional chemotherapy and for four years with the drug Xalkori (crizotinib). My scans are stable and my side effects with Xalkori are tolerable. I go through each day being thankful that I'm still here. Never lose hope! Each day that we survive we are a day closer to finding a cure.