Photo: Danny Feld/ABC
Thanks (and unfortunately) to two-time Emmy Award winning actress Kathryn Joosten, prime time television will get a rare, but very small glimpse into the nation’s number one cancer killer: Lung cancer.
According to a Desperate Housewives producer, this Sunday night (February 28), Joosten’s Housewives character, pesky Mrs. McCluskey, will reveal that doctors have found a spot on her lung.
So, art will imitate life for Joosten (to some degree), with lung cancer becoming a small part of the craziness that surrounds Wisteria Lane.
Joosten was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2001. When the disease recurred in September 2009, Joosten broke the news to her supportive Housewives producers and encouraged them to put the issue in her story line.
Photo Courtesy: Danny Feld/ABC
Joosten is one celebrity who’s brave enough to speak publicly about lung cancer and the fact that she has it. And, she’s on a mission to educate the facts about lung cancer and help erase the stigma attached to it.
I caught up with her for a quick interview at the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation Gala in San Francisco in November, 2009, where she kicked off the fundraising event.
Here’s the deal, lung cancer is no longer a smoker’s disease. In fact, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance, over 60% of new lung cancer cases are never smokers or former smokers, many of whom quit decades ago. Bottom line: No one deserves lung cancer.
My mom, Leslie, (left) talking with Joosten and her friend Donna
Still, lung cancer continues to be the number one cancer killer and THE least funded in dollars per death of the four major cancers: Breast, prostate, colon, lung.
This is absolutely, completely, totally unacceptable.
My mom is one of those “60%-ers,” which is why I started the “WTF?” (Where’s the Funding) for Lung Cancer? campaign. It’s beyond time to push political correctness out the window and finally get lung cancer the awareness and funding it deserves. And, we ARE making a difference.
Thank God Kathryn Joosten isn’t worried about doing the politically correct dance in the celebrity world either. Lung cancer desperately needs the strong voice she is lending to fight this monster. Oh, and thanks to Desperate Housewives for giving this monster to Mrs. McCluskey.
Related posts:
