by Edissy Claudine T. Ramos
2009-33319
Fresh from the ‘feels’ after reading ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, I could not help being paranoid and scared about the Big C. I haven't lost someone close to me to cancer (and God forbid I wouldn't want that to happen), so I don’t really know what to feel, what to expect firsthand. In BBC’s podcast documentary, I have learned a lot - the varying languages and perceptions of the medical professionals, the mourning families, and the brave afflicted patients.
It explored military metaphors like battling and fighting cancer. Though we have given cancer a character - an evil antagonist, the military metaphors or the battle analogies are not appropriate all the time. Yes, it may be helpful to the suffering families and relatives and to comforting friends but the language of battle is not for every patient. If someone dies because of cancer, does that mean he was not brave enough to win the battle? Does that mean he was not strong and courageous enough to fight it?
It is heartbreaking, the way cancer is something we can never fully conquer. How can someone fight something that is in him, that is part of him, that is him? It is like a journey only the cancer-inflicted can really understand. It is their bodies fighting off their own cells in a life-or-death battle. It is a personal journey we can try to simplify in words and meanings, but these words will never be appropriate and will never be enough.
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