Cancer in Iowa: We want to hear your stories

Amie here. We’re starting a big project at Iowa Starting Line that I’m really excited about: Cancer in Iowa.

We’re investigating why Iowa’s cancer rates are so high, and growing so fast.

We’re looking for your stories. I’ll start with mine.

All three people pictured above, all Iowans (and my relatives), had cancer.

My grandpa died when I was 12 of brain cancer. My mom, a nonsmoker, died of lung cancer in 2017, when she was 60. My gramma survived uterine cancer, living into her 90s.

I’ve watched helplessly as good friends don’t make it, or battle through radiation and chemotherapy.

And all the while, I kept thinking:

Why did they get cancer?

Why does it seem to be all around us?

And why are we not talking more about this?

So we here at Iowa Starting Line are going to do something about it.

We’ll be investigating possible causes, like our geographic proximity to radon, the nitrates in our drinking water, and even how alcohol consumption and tanning plays a role. We’ll talk to experts, researchers, and Iowans who have lived it.

And we’ll talk about what our elected officials could be doing about it (maybe by NOT cutting $2.7 billion from the National Cancer Institute, which our governor—who said she wanted to fund cancer research—has been silent on).

The heart of this story is hearing from Iowans like you—those who have battled (or are battling) cancer, or who have watched loved ones battle the disease, and who are done staying silent about it.

If you’d like your story to be a part of this, please submit yours here.

Thank you. (And f*ck cancer.)