On Saturday I spent a good part of the afternoon talking with my neighbor Karen. Her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in February...and she is in a clinical trial to test the efficacy of a new cancer drug to halt the growth of a type of tumor that can spread fast if it isn't attended to.

She will be on this experimental drug for a year.

Is she lucky?

You bet.

Despite all the side effects, the loss of hair, the hotflashes, the lethargy, she is doing well...she has a chance.

Research and new treatment protocols give her that.

I told her about my Aunt Mary, who died of breast cancer at age 46.

There were no medical miracles for her.

In the 1950's women underwent radical mastectomy and were sent home to live or to die. It was about that cut and dry.

My mother took care of my aunt the last 2 months of her life--and she told me once that she didn't think anyone deserved to die like that.

I think about the contrast of then and now. I know that without the mention of the tawdry little word that no one likes to discuss we would still be living in a world without options.

That word of course, is money.

When it comes to a cure for this disease, money makes the world go 'round--and that's a fact.

I would be dishonest if I didn't say that sometimes I wonder if what I am planning to do really matters. Twenty thousand dollars is really so little... and the cancer seems so large.

Then I think about Karen's sister...and my Aunt Mary.

Am I glad I am doing this?

You bet.