Advocating for Lung Cancer Research with the Lung Association

This April will mark the 17th year since Ted Wells lung cancer diagnosis. His wife Nancy Wells will prepare for the somber anniversary remembering her late husband as she joins the American Lung Association, for the fourth year in a row, lobbying for more research, stronger diagnostic tools and greater awareness for the number one cancer killer in America.

Ted was a lifelong New Hampshire resident, with roots in Milford and his home in Dover. He loved to play golf, and travel and spend time with his family. He had successfully stopped smoking ten years earlier and never complained of any chest pain, or a cough, and so his diagnosis came with no symptoms or warnings. Nancy, a registered nurse herself, had taken him to the emergency room for a curious red spot on his arm. They were preparing to leave for Myrtle Beach to look at retirement properties, but she urged him to go and get it checked before they left.

Within days their world was turned upside down. He was admitted to the hospital, and several misdiagnoses later they were given the devastating diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer, Stage 4B.

“His treatment included intensive chemotherapy with multiple agents. This was difficult for him to tolerate and for his family to watch. Although there was some response, his metastatic tumors increased, and this very vibrant, happy man became weaker and in pain. One moment he was planning for retirement, and the next we were preparing for the worst,” remembers Nancy.

Ted lost his battle to lung cancer in December of that year, just 8 months after his diagnosis. At age 62, Ted passed away leaving Nancy and their combined 5 children just two days before Christmas.

Seventeen years later, Nancy is telling Ted’s story. She’s telling it to other advocates, healthcare professionals, and she’s telling her state and federal representatives. She wants to see a change in the way we invest in, research, diagnose and treat lung cancer, so that other families like hers have a fighting chance.

She says, “My family is left with questions: Could Ted’s death been prevented? Could earlier diagnosis have made the difference? I am hoping that funding is forthcoming to continue the development of early screening tools for lung cancer for routine use for all people, just as we have for other cancers. I am hoping that funding is forthcoming for prevention and treatment for this devastating disease.”

This week, she’ll be virtually meeting with members of the New Hampshire delegation, alongside the American Lung Association for LUNG FORCE Advocacy Day, to ask members of Congress to support funding for the National Institutes of Health, so there can be better treatments and improved methods of early detection for lung cancer, and to ask members of Congress to protect patients with pre-existing conditions, including lung cancer.

Nancy said, “Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer – and more than 50 percent of people with lung cancer die within a year of being diagnosed - just like Ted. We know that with better tools for early detection, we can change that, and we can save those precious lives.”