Tell Your Story this Meso Awareness Day
One of the biggest challenges with mesothelioma awareness is the lack of understanding and the stereotypes that affect patients and their families. Many people only know mesothelioma from lawyer commercials and assume patients fit a specific stereotype. Often misunderstood and misdiagnosed, mesothelioma patients and their families have stories that are important, insightful, and meaningful… and we want to hear, share, and celebrate those stories.
We want to know who you are not as a patient, or caregiver, or bereaved person. We want to know the people behind the diagnosis. We want to hear how you are MORE THAN MESO!
Who are you? What are you passionate about? What are some of your biggest life accomplishments? We want to illustrate that patients, caregivers, bereaved members, and advocates come from all backgrounds and walks of life. These stories will highlight and honor the mesothelioma community members’ lives as a whole, rather than just their story associated with mesothelioma.
If you are interested in sharing your or a loved one’s story as a part of the #MoreThanMeso Campaign, email us your story to be featured by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation during September, leading up to Meso Awareness Day.
Below is a short sample #MoreThanMeso story for inspiration. But let your creativity run wild in telling your story: film yourself telling your story, include photos, tell us about a memory that makes you or your loved one come to life.
Mackenzie is #morethanmeso
My name is Mackenzie, and I am a recent graduate of the University of Notre Dame with an honors degree in Political Science and French and Francophone Studies. I am passionate about policy within the realms of healthcare and veterans’ affairs, as well as conducting ethnographic studies. My greatest accomplishment to date is my senior thesis, which explores my fascination with public transportation systems in the city of Paris and how they reveal the underlying political landscape of the French state. I lost my father, a Colonel in the Army, to mesothelioma in 2021, just before beginning my college career. His legacy prompted me to get involved and create change and awareness surrounding the disease. My advocacy and internship experiences with the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation have inspired me to go into political consulting and advocacy as a career. I intend on working alongside lawmakers to make positive and critical changes to this community and others in either Chicago or Washington D.C. in the future. I am #MoreThanMeso.
Colonel Douglas Thomas was a dedicated soldier, husband, and father. He served in the United States Army for 22 years as a field artillery officer. After beginning to date his wife, Tiffany, in high school, he searched for a way to go to college at K-State University to follow her. He found out, through an Army recruiter, that he would be able to join Army ROTC at K-State to get his college paid for as well as attain a bachelor’s degree. After being commissioned in 1999, Doug and Tiffany traveled around the world to different army posts, and endured multiple long-distance stints during his various deployments to Kosovo, Serbia and Iraq. Doug and Tiffany became parents to Mackenzie and Brenden in 2003 and 2006. He learned to love his job in the army and determined a set of six tenants that he would always use in his leadership roles as an officer in the army.
The Thomas Leadership 6 began to circulate army posts and at family gatherings.
These tenants were:
1) Be Aggressive,
2) Have a Positive Attitude
3) Have Moral Courage
4) Keep it Simple Stupid
5) Prioritize Family and Friends
6) Have Fun.
When commanding hundreds of army troops, having advice-filled conversations with his children, and facing his cancer battle, he kept these six things in mind. The Thomas Leadership 6 lives on throughout the military world and his family. Colonel Douglas Thomas is #MoreThanMeso and continues to live on through his very inspirational legacy.
Doug is #morethanmeso
