The Old Mill Park in the Town of Lebanon features five special trees this year, which represent Breast Cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, Diabetes, Heart Disease and Childhood Cancer.
Some local citizens came out to represent these medical conditions and stood with the tree that is decorated in lights that represent each individual issue.
Some information about these issues includes:
Breast Cancer
-12.4% of women will develop breast cancer at some point in their lives.
-This is the second most common cancer among women only second to skin cancer.
-Breast cancer doesn’t just affect women-there were over 2,500 cases diagnosed in men in 2018.
-Nearly 42,000 women will die from breast cancer this year in the United States.
-Annual screening mammograms are crucial in early detection and have helped to reduce death rates.
Alzheimer’s Disease
-Affects memory, cognition, perception, speech and language making even simple tasks difficult.
-There is currently no means of prevention for Alzheimer’s disease and the cause is still undetermined.
-It is the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States.
-Alzheimer’s isn’t exclusive to the elderly-200,000 people under the age of 65 have early onset dementia.
-There are currently 5.7 million people living with Alzheimer’s in the US-this number is expected to triple over the next 30 years.
Diabetes
-Can be classified as Type 1 or Type 2: Type 1 is when the pancreas doesn’t produce insulin and Type 2 is a condition that affects the way that the body processes glucose.
-Affects more than 30 million Americans-this has nearly doubled in the past 20 years.
-7th leading cause of death in the US.
-It is estimated that 7.2 million Americans have undiagnosed diabetes.
-Nearly 18,000 children are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes annually and 5,000 with Type 2 diabetes.
Heart Disease
-The number one cause of death in both men and women in the United States.
-In the United States, someone is diagnosed with a heart attack approximately every 40 seconds.
-The primary risk factors are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking.
-The majority of heart disease can be prevented with lifestyle choices, diet and exercise.
-Although chest pain is the most common symptom of a heart attack many will experience shortness of breath, nausea, lightheadedness, and jaw or neck pain as well.
Childhood Cancer
-The number one cause of death in children under 9 years old.
-Causes a high number of side effects and long term complications even in patients with treated cancers.
-43 children are diagnosed daily with cancer in the United States.
-There are around 429,000 survivors of childhood cancer in the US as of 2015.
-84% of children diagnosed with cancer are alive at least five years after their initial diagnosis in the United States.
Please continue to the following pages to read testimonials from survivors and how these medical conditions and diseases have impacted their lives. We would like to thank all that took the time to courageously share their stories and advocate for others.