JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- You don't have to be a smoker to get lung cancer. It can affect anyone who has lungs -- and that's everyone.
It's a common misconception that you have to be a smoker to get lung cancer. Dr. Catherine Madaffari with The Mayo Clinic knows this first hand. She found out she had lung cancer after getting checked out for a chronic cough.
"It started with maybe a cold and the cough lingered. I really didn't pay any attention to it that much. Some of my colleagues noticed that my cough was lingering, of course. On their advice, they said maybe you should look into that a little bit further," Dr. Madaffari said.
So she finally got checked. She got an x-ray and they found spots. Then she got a CT scan, and they found the cancer.
"It was a big surprise. Because, not being or having any risk factors, not a smoker. Up until a few years before that, I was running marathons, not having any symptoms of weight loss, no family history of anything. It was a real big surprise that I would come down with anything like that," Madaffari said.
She was lucky. She found it in stage one. She says most of the time lung cancer is found when it's in stage 3 or 4 and has metastasized. Sometimes the symptoms go unnoticed. Sometimes they go ignored.
Now, a lot of treatments are focusing on people's specific tumors and the biogenics of that particular tumor.
"We can target that tumor for that patient, so the chemotherapy doesn't effect the rest of the body, just targets that tumor," Madaffari said.
She says her three children helped her get through this tough time in her life. But the role reversal of them now being the care givers was the hardest part.
"I knew what I had to face. I'll have surgery. I can get through it. It's affecting me. I can get through whatever it is that I need to get through. But, how do I convince them it's all going to be okay."
Since her diagnosis, she's become an advocate for lung cancer. Despite lung cancer being the number one killing cancer in both men and women, it doesn't receive as much funding. She believes this is because the stigma it carries.
"It seems that because it's more related to smoking and that maybe it can be prevented if you don't smoke. However, again, that is a misconception. A lot of people do get it and they're not smokers," she said.
This week Lung Force, a part of the American Lung Association, is hosting a turquoise takeover. You're asked to wear turquoise this week to bring attention to lung disease, specifically lung cancer in women.
Here's other ways you can help:
CVS is donating a dollar to Lung Force for every pack of Extra gum purchased at a CVS from now until May 26 up to $100,000.
You can also donate by clicking on this link.