I first got involved with the American Lung Association when my father, Ed Gonzalez, was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. His diagnosis truly struck my entire family with fear and surprise. What started out as a simple persistent cough turned out to be cancer. We were blown away that the rock of our family could have such a terrible disease.
During his treatments, some of the hardest times to experience for me, his declining health and constant chemotherapy treatments made me feel completely helpless when that’s all I wanted to do. I began searching for some way to get involved, and the American Lung Association provided the perfect avenue for me to do that. I joined the Fight for Air Climb and started raising funds in his name.
While being part of this gave me an opportunity to immediately fight alongside him, I knew that the valuable dollars we raised would be going to hopefully finding a cure through the efforts of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and also raising awareness of the dangers of the disease through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
My father, unfortunately, lost his life to lung cancer, but my hope in sharing our story is that another family doesn’t have to go through what I went through. Through protecting funding for the CDC and NIH, we can hopefully one day find a cure for this terrible disease and rid the world of lung cancer for good.
