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Cancer Care During COVID

Mark Crafts pictured smiling with his golden retriever dog on his front porch

By Mark Crafts

Mark Crafts is a technology professional in the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s been conquering Stage IV colon cancer for two and a half years.

COVID-19 has turned the cancer community upside down just like it has everything else. I'm grateful and thankful for all the healthcare professionals, workers and volunteers helping me and millions of other cancer patients stay on track.

Across the cancer community in the United States, cancer patients are facing all sorts of challenges around scheduling surgeries and navigating treatment options and locations. Anecdotally, I've heard from my own nurses, doctors, and friends, in the cancer camp, the following:

  • most all non-urgent cancer surgeries are being postponed

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    A view of the entrance doors at Mark Craft's hospital, where he goes for cancer treatment. The doors have signs related to COVID-19 warnings.
    Signs at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, Calif., direct patients on how to enter during the virus
  • wherever possible, cancer treatments are being adjusted to minimize patient visits to hospitals and cancer centers
  • nearly all clinical trial activity is on hold due to COVID-19
  • hospital cancer staff is on-call for COVID-19 duty if needed

So, this is a really difficult time for everyone in and around the cancer community. It is both scary and stressful for the cancer patients around you. Please do whatever you can to help them cope.

LEARN HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT PATIENTS RIGHT NOW

As someone who's been kept alive now for more than two and a half years by science-based solutions and breakthrough cancer technologies, I can speak to you at length about the value of and need for adequate testing, scanning, and progress measurement. Without it -- whether you are talking about cancer, COVID-19, or any other life-threatening illness -- you are simply flying blind. Science and sound research drive cures. This is a time for truth, transparency, discipline, and patience in finding the COVID-19 cure. Let our healthcare experts and scientists do the work they need to do to protect us all.

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Mark Crafts wearing a bandana outside of the hospital where he receives treatment for cancer. Screenshot linking to his YouTube video.