NET cancer’s patient voice

The NET cancer community lost one of its most powerful and influential patient voices on Saturday. Sunny Jennings Carney ended her NET cancer journey the way nearly all those with it do: they kill their cancer by dying and taking it with them.

We will build on the foundation of your concrete footprints.

But Sunny was more than a statistic in the long, unheralded war against NET cancer. Through her blog—recognized earlier this year by the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation as one of the top five in the US on the subject—her book, The Sunny Side of Cancer, and numerous stories about her and her struggle in Pittsburgh area media, she succeeded in putting a human face on what, for most, is an anonymous cancer even doctors do not recognize when they see it.

An inspiration

She also inspired others with the disease, whether she met them in person or only through her blog. Too often, patients are passive in the presence of their doctors. For some diseases, this may make sense. But NET cancer patients need to be proactive. They have to become their own advocates. With very few exceptions, NET cancer patients know more than their doctors about this disease and the latest treatments and thinking.

…it is hard to believe she is gone.

Sunny inspired other NET cancer patients to be pro-active about their disease, not only through her writing but through personal contact as well. Next month, as part of our press package, we will publish a story about a woman from the Pittsburgh area that Sunny took under her wing when the woman was diagnosed with NET cancer in her lung. It is a moving story.

Final entries

Despite her failing health, Sunny continued to post on her blog well into October. Reading those entries, it is hard to believe she is gone. Her voice is still strong in them, though the imagery makes clear she is facing problems.

Sunny inspired other NET cancer patients…

At one point she talks about the footprints she will leave behind: “I don’t want the footprints that I worked too hard to make (to) get washed away by a wave.” She wanted her footprints to be concrete footprints and, to that end, she asked others to, “Leave some footprints for me. Continue this journey.”

Moving forward

Those words recall again to me what Jane said when she was in the hospital at the end: “Keep moving forward.”

Sunny was more than a statistic…

Sunny, we will do more than leave some footprints for you. We will build on the foundation of your concrete footprints. We will keep moving forward. We will keep raising awareness. We will keep working for a cure.

And some day, NET cancer patients will have another option for killing their cancer than dying.