I just unfriended someone I know on social media, an older man as a matter of fact, for his obnoxious commentary about the former president’s prostate cancer diagnosis. My father died of prostate cancer that eventually metastasized elsewhere and I want to think that people should be able to be better humans about anyone’s cancer diagnosis.

Some people will be very open about their cancer, no matter what their status in life is. Others will not I have been very open over the years about having had breast cancer and my recurring battles with skin cancer. My father was the opposite. He kept it from everyone for a long time, and even when he died, a lot of people never knew he had been sick. That was his personal choice. As a family member and his daughter I found his choice hard, but I honored it because it was his story to tell not mine. I think that is why I was so open about my own cancer. I did not want people burdened by keeping my cancer a secret.

Leave your goddamn politics at the door because cancer doesn’t recognize gender, politics, socioeconomic level, or anything much other than it ravages your body. And if the cancer doesn’t beat you to a pulp, sometimes treatment actually does. 

One of the comments on this man’s post was something along the lines of well they guess if they could’ve hidden the diagnosis they would have. It’s cancer and cancer is very personal. It has a public face as a disease but when it’s happening to you, trust me because I know personally that you don’t know how it feels and you should not tell anyone how they are supposed to handle it or go through it.

If as human beings, we can’t show respect and compassion for anyone with a cancer diagnosis, then that is pretty freaking pathetic.