The following article, written by Kevin Rollason, appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press on May 9th, 2012. Victor Morello, a St. Charles parishioner, is featured in the article.
3,000 cancer deaths prevented
Cancer survivor Victor Morello now volunteers his time to drive other cancer patients to their treatment appointments.
The payoff from more cancer screening and fewer smokers can be seen in the lives still being lived across the country.
According to statistics the Canadian Cancer Society (Manitoba Division) will release today, about 3,000 Manitobans were saved in the last 20 years because of declining smoking rates and more screening tests.
And across Canada, about 100,000 lives were saved.
Victor Morello is one of the local cancer survivors.
Morello, 75, was diagnosed with throat cancer three years ago. He has been cancer-free since being treated.
"I was a smoker," he said.
"I started when I was 12 because it was the in thing. I was a two-pack-a-day smoker."
But Morello said he puffed his last 12 years before his cancer diagnosis.
"I asked the doctor how could that be and the doctor said the damage was already done," he said.
"If it was today, I wouldn't have picked up the habit."
Will Cooke, the society's local tobacco advocacy co-ordinator, said the reduction in smoking in the last few decades has been "a massive public health achievement.
"There were more than 60 per cent (of Canadian men in the 1960s) smoking and we had high lung-cancer rates. Now there has been a 30-per-cent reduction in lung-cancer rates between 1988 and 2010.
Cooke said it has taken decades for a reduction in cancer rates linked to reduced smoking to transpire. "People get lung cancer from smoking a long time and the rates don't drop overnight," he said.
Cooke said because women were slower to kick the smoking habit in high numbers, taking until the early 1980s, the lung-cancer rate for women hasn't dropped yet.
Cooke said this year alone, the cancer society will invest $4 million in lung-cancer and tobacco-related research projects.
He said screening tests like those for colorectal, cervical and breast cancer have resulted in lower cancer death rates.
But Cooke said despite the successes seen against lung cancer and other cancers, there will still be thousands of Canadians who die from the disease.
This year, the society estimates where will be about 186,400 new cancer cases diagnosed, not including 81,000 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer.
The society estimates more than 75,000 Canadians will die from cancer this year.
"There is still a lot of work to be done, but there's been great progress," Cooke said.
Today, Morello is one of the local society's 10,000 volunteers.
He drives cancer patients from their residences to their treatment appointments.
"I was getting morphine during my treatment and I didn't know if I was coming or going," he said.
"My wife couldn't drive and drop me off because, since I was on morphine, I might have disappeared. So I was driven by the society's volunteer drivers.
"I didn't have to worry about the car or parking so I decided that if I got free of cancer I would volunteer. I have now for three years."
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