As if being involved in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers wasn't horrific enough, it's now appearing as if people present at the WTC on that world-changing day have higher than normal rates of lymphatic and blood cancers, as reported on our sister site, That's Fit. This comes as a particularly harsh blow, since it's also been shown that 70% of this group also suffers from respiratory illnesses. But the true impact of this correlation won't be evident for years to come, when the disease may become present in many not currently affected.

I can't help but be reminded of the aftermath of the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, when what was at first a tragedy of epic proportions was made by the realization that people would continue to suffer the effects for many years to come.

The world is such a cruel, unfair place sometimes.

Radio Iowa reports that Lance Armstrong wants to fight the final battles against cancer by forming an army to wage war on cancer. Armstrong is in Iowa this week to participate in RAGBRAI, a cycling tour across the state of Iowa, and while there he is also giving interviews and making speeches about cancer and cancer survivorship.

"What we need is an army. We need an army of people. It starts in Iowa," Lance Armstrong said during an appearance in Newton on Wednesday. "Now's the time to make a difference and knock this thing out forever."

At the heart of the matter is federal funding for cancer research. For the first time in 35 years, the federal budget for cancer research has been cut -- which is essential to cancer research. Without federal funding, the advances made toward a cure for cancer are dramatically slowed. Armstrong is on a mission to ignite the political passions of the voters in this country to become an army against cancer.

"We hear every day how we're in the middle of a war, maybe a war in Iraq. It might be a war on terror. Let me tell you about a war. This is a war that's 35 years old and this is the war that's about time in my opinion that we get done with and that we finish," Armstrong said at a political event in Iowa City two days ago.

In a cancer survivor's life, there are no simple aches and pains. A headache is a potential brain tumor -- sore joints bone cancer -- stomach ache liver cancer. These dramatic leaps to immediate and certain dire conclusion are not the workings of a rational mind. Cancer tends to leave this sticky free-floating inner residue of terror behind.

Trying to talk yourself down from the internal tree of irrationality is a process each cancer survivor must do time and time again.

Only Miriam Engelberg, author of book and blog Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person, could take this affliction of cancer-altered reasoning and make it as funny as she does with all things cancer-related. While Miriam was away on vacation she got an attack of gas. Her new Cartoon of the Week tells the cartoonist's pen-and-ink tale.

She just makes me feel better about being me in sharing the who of who she is.

Two years ago, during Thanksgiving weekend, my nephew, a fine young man of exceptional character, was killed by a roadside bomb in Ad Duilayah, Iraq. We miss him daily, and it is with special interest I noticed a news story release today about another American soldier in Afghanistan, separated from family and homeland, who is planning to do a run to raise money for breast cancer in the desert of a foreign land. Army 1st Lt. Michael G. Clark, Task Force Muleskinner air movement officer, will run for the Komen Pittsburgh Race for the Cure, only he won't be doing it in Pittsburgh. Back home, Clark would be running with his family during the annual event they have participated in for the last four years. Clark became involved in the Komen Pittsburgh Race for the Cure after he lost his grandmother to breast cancer.

"When my grandmother passed away I was very devastated," Clark said. "It was hard on me. Later I decided I wanted to do something to help so that others wouldn't have to go through what I went through, losing someone to breast cancer. That's when I started running for the cure." Although Clark will not be able to run the race with his family members back home, he will be joined by some of his military family members, including his commander and other members of his unit.

Clark will continue collecting donations up until May 14. I went to the Komen Pittsburgh Race for the Cure website and did a search of race participants for Army 1st Lt. Michael G. Clark and found this donation page. I called the Pittsburgh Race for the Cure affiliate office to verify this is the same person but no one at the office answers. If you wish to donate to his run, I believe this is the correct page to do so, but I cannot verify it with the race officials in Pittsburgh at this time. 

Photo credit:  Sgt. Michael J. Taylor, USA

In 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Debbie Reeve, a FDNY paramedic, spent several months at Ground Zero working in the morgue. Two years later, she developed breathing problems. The next year, Reeve was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer. Mesothelioma is a malignant lung cancer linked to asbestos exposure. Reeve was exposed to asbestos particles in the air caused by the collapsing twin towers. According to her physician and her family, her work at Ground Zero is the direct link to the cancer that has taken her life. She died Wednesday, leaving behind her husband, David Reeve, 45, a FDNY paramedic, and two children, a daughter Elizabeth, who is ten years old, and a son Mark, who is only six years old. Her family said she suffered greatly leading up to her death, as the cancer consumed her body.

The Daily News has already reported that 23 Ground Zero workers have died from the toxic mix of chemicals present at Ground Zero. The heartbreak of the day that changed this nation forever, continues.