“Every cancer patient wants to know how much time I have,” recalled the woman from Harnett County, and added, “and it’s a question that we really don’t want to ask, but we want to know. And I was told, maybe 10, 15 years at the most. . “
Goff had just been diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer, a preventable cancer.
She was 51 years old.
A Dunn resident, she recalled how her case left the small town on the alert and taught her from the start of her fight against cancer how valuable her advocacy could be.
The news spread quickly about his surgery and diagnosis.
Apparently, people saw this as a cautionary tale and started doing colonoscopies.
“I was contacted later by a pharmacist friend of mine in the city who said right after my surgery, when everyone started hearing about me, she almost ran out of preparation for colonoscopy,” recalled Goff.
This is one of the reasons why she happily joined forces with the people at Fight Colorectal Cancer.
And now, during National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, she is fighting hard not only for her own life, but for other lives as well.
When she turned 50, that was the recommended age for a colonoscopy. But she postponed it because she had no family history of cancer.
“I learned that if you have a colon, you could potentially have colon cancer,” warned Goff.
A few months after his diagnosis, the American Cancer Society reduced the recommended age for a first colonoscopy to 45.
It was, according to his doctors, probably the approximate age at which the cancer started to develop.
In retrospect, she said, “If I had reached 45, they probably would have found polyps early, and they could have been removed. And that would have prevented the development of cancer.”
She wants everyone 45 and older to have colonoscopies and said that concerns about the procedure being uncomfortable or painful are no longer justified.
“Preparation just got a lot easier,” she said. “And the procedure itself, you are anesthetized, you pass out. So you don’t feel anything.”
Goff noted that children under 45 should still be aware of the symptoms and that there are things they can do to prevent colon cancer.
“A lot of young people are showing up with cancer,” said Goff. “There are some children who are, you know, teenagers and pre-teens with stage four colon cancer, many in their 20s and 30s. So people need to know what the signs and symptoms are.”
While she was talking to ABC11 about her journey, near her home in Dunn there were bottles of experimental chemotherapy capsules.
She recently entered a clinical trial of the new chemotherapy after other chemotherapy treatments have become ineffective.
She refuses to stop fighting.
“In stage four, this is a cancer that has a 14% survival rate,” said Goff. “But my husband says I suck at statistics and I don’t want to become one. So I’m not listening to that part.”
So pay attention to your warnings because if your efforts to inform others help to save lives, they will undoubtedly provide additional inspiration in your struggle to save your own.
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