"Because, he doesn't want my sympathy, he has kept me in the dark about his illness. Little did he know that leaving me in the dark would only make me want to know more," Moore said, explaining why she chose her senior project topic. "I want to know what's happening with my dad now and what may happen in the future."
In Hummell's case, she faced her father's cancer a year and a half ago - "something I've never been faced with before, and quite frankly, something I hope I never have to face again. Cancer was something I'd heard about, but I never dreamed it would attack someone close to me.
"At the age of 64, my father, a man whom I thought would live forever, was diagnosed with lung cancer. I never understood how someone who was so healthy just months before could get so sick in just the blink of an eye," she said. "After fighting what seemed like a long battle that was really only seven months, my father lost, and I lost one of the most important people in my life. I still don't understand how this happened. I chose to do my Senior Project on lung cancer as a way of helping me to 'come to grips' with this loss."
Through their research, both seniors learned much about the two types of cancer. Plus, they learned a lot about themselves.
Moore thought colon cancer only affected older people until she learned of the Today show's Katie Couric, whose young husband died of colon cancer.
Nearly all colon cancers start as polyps, tiny grapelike projections that sprout on the inside of the large intestine, Moore learned.
"Most of the time these growths are benign, but occasionally a collection of cells - through a series of genetic mishaps - will get bigger and bigger until it turns into a tumor," she said.
About 25 percent of these malignant growths are triggered by a genetic predisposition that has been present since birth. The rest of the time, normal genes become damaged with age or exposure to the toxic brew of wastes that collect in the colon, she learned.
For Hummell to learn about her father's lung cancer, Hess arranged an interview with Dr. Elizabeth Dixon, the Hummell's family's physician.
"I asked Dr. Dixon what caused my father's cancer. She said that she didn't know, that there was no obvious immediate cause, it was just something he was exposed to. I also asked her if it was preventable and she said, 'no.'
"Many people think of cancer as one disease, but there are actually a hundred types of cancer," Hummell said. "Cancer can form in almost all tissues of the body. All cancers share one main characteristic: the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. Most of these cells form tumors, which invade normal tissues and disrupt body functions. The body is constantly forming new cells to replace old cells and to repair or grow tissue, as the body needs it. Lung cancer - the number one cancer killer - is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lung," she wrote in her senior project.
Hess also arranged for Hummell to access her father's Hospice records. "I am really glad I read the records," the senior said. "As I read them I felt like I was reliving my father's last days with him, and I really understood what a lung cancer patient experiences. It was a good transition of death and dying."
Along with her father's diagnosis, four people in Moore's family have died from cancer. "So you can bet I'll always have frequent checkups," she said with great enthusiasm, "because the thing about most types of cancer is that if they're caught in the earliest stages, they are curable. So if more people underwent routine screening, more lives would be saved."
Working together on their senior project prompted Hummell and Moore to take up the cause for cancer. By selling candy suckers, Starbursts, and luminaires, the two have already raised $1,254 for Jackson County's Relay For Life, the signature event of the American Cancer Society. They've formed a team and plan to walk during the two-day relay June 9 and 10 at Western Carolina University's track.
With Moore's help, Hummell's working on a speech she'll give at the event. "It's like standing up in front of my class and talking about such a personal experience, I couldn't have done it before my senior project. Understanding the transition between death and dying gave me so much inner peace," said Hummell, who will also lead the relay's memorial walk. "I think my daddy would be proud."
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Herald photo by Rose Hooper