The Wellesley
Cancer Prevention Project
Viola Morse writer
I never thought of
myself as an activist – or as an environmentalist – yet through an
interesting twist of fate, some might use those very words to describe me.
It was January 1997, and within weeks, my world came to a screeching halt. My
47 year old husband was diagnosed and operated on for prostate cancer. Then,
just six weeks later, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. After my surgery, I
underwent six weeks of daily radiation treatments, followed by six months of
chemotherapy. To quote a famous author, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The “worst” part is
obvious. The “best” part is the phenomenal support and love that we received
from all our friends and neighbors who rallied around us during this
difficult time.
It’s a terrible thing to be told you have cancer, and perhaps even more
frightening to have absolutely no clue as to why you got it - no family
history, no high risk factors. In fact, I was doing all the things people are
told to do to reduce one’s risk for getting colon cancer; I exercised
regularly, ate lots of fruits and vegetables, didn’t smoke, and kept my
weight down.
I started to examine the situation more closely, and in talking with others
found that so many people’s lives had been touched by cancer. Eventually, as
I talked with more and more cancer survivors and their family members, I felt
that there was more to the story than was typically discussed in polite
circles.
A couple of close friends and I got together and started pulling together the
facts. Was there really so much cancer in our community, or were we only
sensing that because of our clearly biased perspectives? After months of
digging, calling and letter writing, we learned that Wellesley did, in fact, have
“statistically significant” elevated cancer rates in three different
categories and elevated rates in another. We learned that today, 1 in 3 women
in the United States will be diagnosed with some
sort of cancer in their lifetime. For men, it’s 1 in 2. We also learned that
in 1950, that statistic was 1 in 20. Massachusetts has the fourth highest incidence
of breast cancer in the nation. What has changed in our society?
We created the Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project (WCPP) as an effort to
raise awareness about the health risk factors that have an impact on our
lives. We were initially advised to forget about our concerns, because this
wasn’t a big issue for most people. Some individuals were reluctant to join
our efforts, because they didn’t want to focus on bad news. Others were
relieved that someone was finally talking about a very troubling issue. We
held a townwide forum in the year 2000, and over
500 people came. That’s a larger turn-out than almost any other event in the
history of this town.
It took a lot of convincing to get people to understand that our efforts were
not intended to frighten the public. We stated then, and still maintain today
that Wellesley has no bigger problem than any other community.
We just need to acknowledge that there are things in our lifestyle that may
impact our health. We may not have factories and smokestacks spewing black
dust in the air, but that doesn’t mean that we are not at risk. It is true
that we have access to good healthcare, and we see the doctor more frequently
than people in less affluent towns. However, that is not why we have high
cancer rates. We need to acknowledge that all of our communities, regardless
of socioeconomics, are experiencing more cancer incidence. Yes, the survival
rates are improving, but the incidence rates are still increasing.
The WCPP took that message to garden clubs, women’s groups, PTOs, town and government leaders, religious groups and
senior citizens. I was even asked to give a lecture to students at Wellesley College. We’ve presented lectures and
forums, written articles and sent mailings. We’ve worked with the Massachusetts
Department of Public Health to establish a special study of cancer incidence
in Wellesley.
The chemical industry has contributed many wonderful things to our
contemporary lives. But we’ve also paid a price, and we’re continuing to pay
without fully understanding the final cost. The WCPP learned about the risks
of the chemicals we use in our everyday lives. Chemicals in our dry cleaning
processes, our cosmetics, our lawn care. We’ve
carried that message to the community, in the belief that intelligent people
will do the right thing. The jury is still out regarding all of the distinct
and exact causes of cancer. Yet there is no doubt in my mind that the
environment plays a significant role.
The mission of the Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project is to provide
practical information to help people make better decisions about ways to
reduce health-risk factors in their lives. And we’ve learned that it’s not
just about cancer. There have been many studies looking at the impact of
pesticides and other frequently-used chemicals on illnesses such as autism,
learning disabilities, Parkinson’s, birth defects and fertility.
Prevention, for us, is key. There’s a lot of money
in treatment and cures, but not much at the front end of the equation.
Unfortunately, this translates into less attention. If you want to learn more
about the WCPP and how you can minimize your personal cancer risk, I
encourage you to go to www.wcpponline.org. We are actively seeking new board
members to take this organization to a new level. If you are interested,
please contact the WCPP at 781-237-6465.
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