Why I hate the expression "losing the battle with cancer"
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
January 15, 2016 1:27pm CST
It's been a terrible week for cancer deaths this week. Well realistically it's probably been no different than any other week in terms of how many people died, but it's certainly been a week for celebrity cancer deaths.
I woke one morning to the death of David Bowie, came home a few days later to learn that Alan Rickman had passed away, and today my Facebook news tells me that poor Celine Dion's husband has died too. In the middle of all of that, I went to the funeral of my friend who also had cancer.
I'm a member of a thyroid cancer support group and we've been chatting on Facebook about this glut of bad news. One woman raised the issue we all share; our hatred of all the ridiculous cliches around cancer death. I particular, we all loathe the 'he/she lost his/her battle with cancer' cliche most of all.
People who die with cancer aren't losers or failures. They didn't stop trying, give in, or not care enough to stay alive. To say that someone with cancer lost their battle with the disease is as pointless as saying that someone who falls off a cliff has lost their battle with gravity or someone killed in a car crash lost their battle with a truck coming the opposite way.
The news media are prone to over-using tired old worn-out cliches and I'm sure it's not their intention to piss people off but undeniably they do. The time is long overdue for reporters and writers to drop the old battle analogy and come up with something better; ideally something that doesn't come with such a nasty whiff of failure.
24 people like this
15 responses
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
15 Jan 16
Losing the battle with cancer doesn't infer that the person gave up, not to me anyway. My father lost the battle of pancreatic cancer. He isn't a failure, he was warrior.
4 people like this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
15 Jan 16
@AbbyGreenhill Pancreatic is a terrible and highly dangerous cancer and one that only 1% of people survive 10 years and many don't make one year - like your poor father. I'm sorry for your loss.
2 people like this
@much2say (53958)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jan 16
That is true - it's certainly not the best way to say what we already know - it can be insensitive. And I think the media knows this - they suck us into our stories any way they can - they will try to grip our hearts with words that tug on our emotions.
1 person likes this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
15 Jan 16
I think my post already explains why I don't think it's an appropriate expression. I'm not going to explain it again.
@celticeagle (159058)
• Boise, Idaho
16 Jan 16
Losing that battle is horrible. I lost both parents and many of my BFF's. Now Celine, and these others have to go through this awful business. The other day a person who had posted a similar post on here said that cancer was a normal way to die. That statement unnerved me. I see nothing natural about dying from cancer.
@celticeagle (159058)
• Boise, Idaho
16 Jan 16
@boiboing ...When I think of cancer I think of both my parents, emaciated and not in their right minds. To me that is not normal at all.
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (134465)
• Roseburg, Oregon
16 Jan 16
No matter what term you use. It still a sad thing and loss of good life's.
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
16 Jan 16
well it was a battle, and it has always felt to me that the one's truly paying the loss are the one's left to grieve
1 person likes this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
16 Jan 16
@boiboing thank you for bringing this bit of insensitivity into the public eye.
1 person likes this
