Widow of Meso Victim Makes Cancer Film
A filmmaker whose young husband died of malignant mesothelioma in 2001 has produced a documentary about cancer and fighting the disease. The film will air on many PBS stations this week.
According to an article in The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, filmmaker Linda Garmon asks in the opening to the thoughtful documentary, The Truth about Cancer, why Americans can put a man on the moon but can’t cure cancer.
Garmon says she grew up, “with unquestioning faith in America’s ability to solve problems with science and technology. So nothing, nothing at all, prepared me for (my husband’s 2001 death from) cancer.”
Six years later, Garmon returned to the Boston hospitals that had treated her husband as he struggled with cancer and mesothelioma treatments, intent on exploring researchers’ progress in combating the disease. Her documentary tells the stories of several patients struggling to treat their illnesses and deal with the ultimate outcome.
Film subjects include Jamie Klayman, age 38, who suffers from aggressive pancreatic cancer. The movie profiles her disappointment when neither conventional nor experimental treatments work.
Also part of the film is Jennifer Riley, age 37, who has suffered with breast cancer for 8 years. Riley says she has been able to add years to her life by continually trying new drugs and enrolling in clinical trials. Even though the drugs remain effective only for months, she says she is “grateful for every additional moment medicine can give her with her family.”
Garmon notes that what she discovered after talking to cancer patients like Klayman and Riley that there might be no cure, but there are small victories.
“Many of us grew up in the era of the ‘war on cancer,’ ” says George Demetri, director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
“And when there’s a war, maybe one day you’ll wake up, and there’s a peace treaty. But that’s not the right expectation here. What’s more likely to happen is that we will see the war won one battle at a time.”