I just recently found out that my mother has cancer, and a whole lot of it (stage 4). According to the doctors, it wasn't there until January and just rapidly spread from there. My mom was sick through the entire month of February and the doctors gave several reasons, none of which were cancer. Well, they finally decided to do the biopsy a couple days ago and found that she's got a whole lot in the lungs and bunch in her stomach. Some has actually spread to her brain even through the blood stream.
Then today, I got the worst news. Doctors estimate that she'll only live about 3-9 months at most from now.

I figured lung cancer was gonna get her one these days, being a chain smoker for most of 30 years, but I didn't think it was gonna happen this quick.

Hope this kind of serves as an inspiration for anyone considering or trying to kick that nasty habit.

Feel free to share your own cancer related experiences/losses. I'd love to hear about them and how you were able to cope with them.