Breast Cancer and The Blame Game (Followup)

At the time I wrote my posting Breast Cancer and The Blame Game, I had no idea that I would write a followup. But here it is.

What prompted this was a comment posted today by a cancer organization in reaction to my The Perils of Thinking Positively posting. Now I screen my comments, but this one deserved to be posted as evidence of the blame game in action. Here is the comment:

"Fruits are a pleasant way of keeping cancers at bay! The nature is kind enough to give us these fruits as a delicious tingle to our pallets and at the same time keep us immune to dreaded cancers."

To which I replied,

"You have to be kidding me, right?

I have eaten lots of fruit my entire life and still got cancer anyway. Maybe it was the pesticides on the fruit that led to my cancer.


Humanity was unkind enough to give us these chemicals as toxins to our bodies and at the same time make us vulnerable to cancer.


And, by the way, no one is immune to cancer."


I do appreciate that this comment -- albeit ignorant -- was a blanket statement about all cancers in general and not just breast cancer. However, I didn't appreciate the blame for my own cancer by my supposedly not eating fruit.

I am a professional writer and have published numerous academic and magazine articles, as well as an essay on my breast cancer experience in the anthology Voices of Breast Cancer by LaChance Publishing. I can be contacted at bethlgainer@gmail.com and gainercallingtheshots@gmail.com.