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By Jami Defenbaugh
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 9:01 AM CST
Myrtle Chidester used to think she could handle anything. That was before she realized, looking back at her life, nothing bad had ever happened.
Until 2005. One year after relocating with her husband to O'Fallon and starting a new job, the 55-year-old was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
What followed was an emotional roller coaster of difficult doctor appointments, painful chemotherapy treatments and the struggle to accept there was no cure for her illness.
"For the first year or year and a half, I was so busy worrying about the future and what the future didn't have, I really was more into dying than living," she said.
But Myrtle also encountered a set of problems she didn't expect, and soon found she shared them with lung cancer patients Cheryl Lamprecht, 59, of Chesterfield, and Bill Thomas, 60, of Webster Groves. When facing their diagnosis and treatment, each said this: They failed to find support and information within the community. They quickly discovered what little funding was available for earlier diagnoses and better treatments. And though only Chidester smoked - and quit more than 20 years ago - each felt the stigma that they must have smoked and therefore deserved to be sick.
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