WTF? A Daughter's Drive to Fight Lung Cancer
Reported by Molli Graham, mgraham@action3news.com
Omaha, NE - Every hour 19 people will die of lung cancer. But the stigma that only smokers get lung cancer is slowing the effort to get money to fight the disease. One in five women diagnosed, never smoked. As mother's day approaches, we show you one daughter's effort to figure out, Where's the Funding?
Check out the video of this story here.
Read more about WTF here and about Jennifer's mom here.
"Hi mom, how are you?" "Good, how are you?" A conversation via video conference between a mother and her daughter. A thousand plus miles separate the two, but a deadly disease brings them much closer. "How you feeling today mom?" "Well I'm feeling about like I usually do," says Leslie Lehrman. At 66-years-old Lehrman has Stage IV inoperable lung cancer. She's never smoked a day in her life. That's right, a non-smoker diagnosed with the deadliest form of cancer.
"Oh my god, it's a death sentence, I've got a death sentence here." After surgeries, chemo, radiation, and losing her hair twice, Leslie is still alive and it's a very rare statistic. Her daughter, Jennifer Windrum, is making it her life's work to change that. About six-months-ago Windrum launched WTF, not what you're thinking, it's a Facebook page, which stands for, "Where's the Funding." Lung cancer is the number one killer and yet fewer dollars are spent on research than breast, colon, and prostate cancer. The reason, the stigma, it's a smoker's disease.
"Anyone can get lung cancer and that is what people don't realize, it can easily come to their house just like it came to mine," says Jennifer Windrum. In fact, one in five women diagnosed, have never smoked. But because there's little funding, there's not enough research to reveal why non-smokers get lung cancer.
No money also means no screenings. So basically, if a doctor checks your lungs for cancer, the cancer is likely so progressed that it's too late to do much to save you. Leslie was in for another test when doctors found her cancer. She credits her life to early detection. "It's been a tough five years, but I'm still here and that's what's important." A major milestone, 85% will die within five years.
Those faces, and faces of the survivors, fill WTF's page. Pictures and words from more than 3,000 fans. One mom reaches out writing, "I am the mother of 3 and at the age of 41 was just diagnosed with lung cancer. I am fighting everyday for my children to have me here with them."
Fighting for moms, makes WTF all worth it, after all, Windrum is a mom too. "There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't think about my girls and looking at them and thinking gosh." Daughters, moms, and grandmoms, generations of women fueling WTF.
If you'd like to support WTF's fight for early detection and research, we have links posted above. You'll find a mother's day challenge as well, to become a WTF'er and battle this deadly disease.
"Oh my god, it's a death sentence, I've got a death sentence here." After surgeries, chemo, radiation, and losing her hair twice, Leslie is still alive and it's a very rare statistic. Her daughter, Jennifer Windrum, is making it her life's work to change that. About six-months-ago Windrum launched WTF, not what you're thinking, it's a Facebook page, which stands for, "Where's the Funding." Lung cancer is the number one killer and yet fewer dollars are spent on research than breast, colon, and prostate cancer. The reason, the stigma, it's a smoker's disease.
"Anyone can get lung cancer and that is what people don't realize, it can easily come to their house just like it came to mine," says Jennifer Windrum. In fact, one in five women diagnosed, have never smoked. But because there's little funding, there's not enough research to reveal why non-smokers get lung cancer.
No money also means no screenings. So basically, if a doctor checks your lungs for cancer, the cancer is likely so progressed that it's too late to do much to save you. Leslie was in for another test when doctors found her cancer. She credits her life to early detection. "It's been a tough five years, but I'm still here and that's what's important." A major milestone, 85% will die within five years.
Those faces, and faces of the survivors, fill WTF's page. Pictures and words from more than 3,000 fans. One mom reaches out writing, "I am the mother of 3 and at the age of 41 was just diagnosed with lung cancer. I am fighting everyday for my children to have me here with them."
Fighting for moms, makes WTF all worth it, after all, Windrum is a mom too. "There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't think about my girls and looking at them and thinking gosh." Daughters, moms, and grandmoms, generations of women fueling WTF.
If you'd like to support WTF's fight for early detection and research, we have links posted above. You'll find a mother's day challenge as well, to become a WTF'er and battle this deadly disease.
