Racine M., NJ

Statistically, for Active Duty military personnel, National Guard and Reserve service members, and Veterans and their family members, the risk of lung cancer is higher than civilians. In fact, U.S. service members who deploy outside of the U.S. may encounter chemical, biological, physiological and radiological exposures they may never have experienced during military service in the United States or as civilians.

I wish this data was made privy to both the general public and my family prior to my father a U.S. Navy Veteran, Mark McCutcheon passing away from Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) on August 11, 2021, at the young age of 62. My father served our great country for 26 years, before retiring in 2004 as a Senior Chief. During the course of his dedicated military career, he served on 6 different naval ships, including several overseas deployments during the Gulf War to the Persian Gulf Region (1990-1991), and again during post-9/11 conflicts over to the Middle East during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2004).

My father did not get much time after the onset of his symptoms. He became suddenly ill, unable to walk in June of 2021, and thereafter his health rapidly deteriorated by the day, although it felt like it was by the hour. Unfortunately, by the time healthcare providers were able to identify the cause, it was too late, as the cancer had metastasized throughout his entire body, and he was diagnosed as stage 4. No more than 2 weeks following this diagnosis and becoming quickly physically unrecognizable, he was placed in hospice and lost his short-lived battle to a type of lung cancer that has no known cure.

As a healthcare worker myself and in the midst of my overwhelming state of grief, amongst all the questions circulating within my head, I asked myself the same two questions repeatedly: “why is this the case for our military service members; and why hasn’t more knowledge, as well as any currently known preventative measures not been shared or spoken about more publicly, let alone within our healthcare systems and amongst providers?” I was overcome with this relentless thirst to know more, which then resulted in long, sleep-deprived nights down my own “research rabbit-hole” on a ferocious quest to find answers. I was desperately hoping to equip myself with knowledge that would somehow justify my father’s sudden death. Unfortunately, losing a loved one to lung cancer is never justified. However, I became undoubtedly driven to take the knowledge I have obtained and advocate for anyone else who was personally suffering from and/or had lost someone close to them, at the hands of this cancer.

In addition, I have come to prioritize advocating the importance of lung cancer preventative measures in any and every way possible. This includes voicing and raising awareness to the importance of our country protecting its Medicaid programs, to ensure lung cancer patients have continued access to quality affordable healthcare coverage. More importantly, the unprecedented importance of both the CDC and NIH, in maintaining and securing funds for ongoing research and protecting their mission(s) in promoting and protecting our nation’s health; most importantly as it relates to lung cancer research and finding a cure one day. No one should have to suffer the way my father did in any capacity, nor at any age, and no loved-one should have to standby and bear witness to such an unfair and aggressive death sentence.