As the Executive Director of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, I see the cruel impact of mesothelioma on innocent people and families across the country. It is, without a doubt, among the most vicious and painful of cancers. I know all too well how aggressively the tumor crushes the lungs or invades vital organs in the stomach, how the need for medical research was ignored for years, how patients today are offered very little hope of effective treatment. Which is precisely why the story of Zaida Mattson took my breath away.
Zaida is four years old. Like many four year-olds, Zaida loves to sing, dance and play. She loves Ariel from The Little Mermaid. She loves her older sister and parents with all her heart, as they love her. She is a wonderful child – a wonderful child that was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year.
For those of you that don’t know, mesothelioma is a rare cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The typical face of mesothelioma is an older person; the cancer most often takes decades to develop in the lining of the lungs or stomach after an exposure to asbestos, usually afflicting men and women in their 60s and 70s. But for reasons that are not yet understood, mesothelioma cases have started arising in younger and younger people, individuals in their 40s, 30s, even 20s.
There are approximately 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in the U.S. each year – fathers, mothers, friends, neighbors, co-workers. All of their stories are personal. All of their stories are important. Zaida’s story is important in a new way. This tragic case of mesothelioma in a little four year-old child tells us that mesothelioma is everyone’s problem. No age is safe.
Zaida’s mother came to the Meso Foundation – the national non-profit working to cure mesothelioma and providing support and education to families impacted by it – and asked us to tell her story. She wants to use Zaida’s story to help us build awareness about the disease, and to raise money for research. Zaida’s mom understands that research for a cure is Zaida’s best chance, and the best chance for all of the mesothelioma patients of today and tomorrow.
This is why we need you to spread the word, help us build awareness, and – if you can – open your wallets. Zaida needs your help. Thousands of men and women, unwittingly exposed to asbestos and now fighting against this deadly cancer, need your help. Everyone at risk to develop this disease in the future needs your help.
