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This week is Cancer Survivors Week
This first week of June was officially declared Cancer Survivors Week, with a proclamation signed Friday by Gov. Eloy S. Inos.
Gov. Eloy S. Inos is joined by cancer survivors, anti-cancer advocates, and other officials after the proclamation signing for Cancer Survivor’s Week.
(Frauleine S. Villanueva)
Started May 31 and ending on June 6, the week is set aside to give focus on those who survived the disease.
Inos clarified how this week is different from Marianas March Against Cancer Week, which is also held to honor those who have been touched by cancer.
“The Marianas March against Cancer is the signature fundraising event for the Commonwealth Cancer Association and that honors survivors too but this is a day set aside throughout the United States to honor the survivors,” CCA president Lauri B. Ogumoro said.
The Cancer Survivor’s Day is traditionally held in hundreds of communities around the world on the first Sunday of June.
In the CNMI, it will be marked with a celebration of the Holy Mass and a candlelight vigil at the Kristo Rai Church in Garapan this Sunday at 9:30am. A healing Mass was also held last Friday as part of the celebration.
Inos invited the community to take part in the “joyous celebration of life.”
“I’m always a believer that everyone is supposed to have cancer. Those who don’t have cancer are lucky folks. The ones with cancer are not unlucky, because we’re not perfect,” Inos commented after the signing.
Starting today, a contest will be held by CCA in honoring the survivors through wearing purple clothes or rainbow colored ribbons, decorating offices or vehicles of the same color, banning of betel nut, and calling the CCA office to schedule an awareness visit.
Through documenting these activities and pledges through photos and tagging CCA Marianas on Facebook, agencies, companies and individuals will have the chance to win a pizza party delivered to them as well as have their photos published online and in the newspapers.
According to the proclamation, there are about 300 active and productive cancer survivors in the Commonwealth and nearly 12 million cancer survivors in the U.S.
