By Tina Withrow
Our premier picture together came at Little Long Lake near Angola, Indiana. I was a preemie and my big sister was not only like a second mom, she assumed the role of caretaker of our family of 9, even before our mother became sick. My father had special names for everyone. Some of those names were not the kind that you could repeat because that’s just how my dad was. Peanut’s name stuck and that’s what everyone called her.
Back in the day when families took care of each other and a village meant your neighbor, your church, your Auntie’s and Uncle’s, Miss Peanut could always be counted on to be the worker bee making all feel important and welcome. She married young and raised a loving family. She was never the one at the front of the crowd. No, she was one doing the work, blending in among the group, making sure all was well in your world. If it wasn’t, she went into short order cook mode to whip up all those feel good kind of foods. She was June Cleaver in a pair of jeans.
Cancer struck her when we least expected it. Throat cancer that would leave her with a much altered voice and a tracheostomy for the rest of her life. So many in my family have had cancer, we call it the family business. Recovery was hard, but she was determined. Watching her place her finger over her trachea to talk, watching how people stared at her, and watching her grace during it all changed me, inspired me and made me madder than hell. This led me to a life’s work of helping people with cancer, running a cancer center, raising a crazy amount of money for cancer, and I never slowed down trying to figure out what to do about my sweet sister getting cancer. Truth is, when your loved one gets cancer, you need to get quiet and listen. My answer was to work, work, work so that I didn’t have to get quiet. I finally got quiet and listened to my heart’s desire to make something happen to those affected TODAY and beyond with thyroid, head & neck cancer.
Heads Up Dallas Fort Worth! A new cancer foundation is here, and we are dedicated to changing and impacting lives. We believe advocacy equals action and we must act now! 
The DFW Thyroid, Head and Neck Cancer Foundation is a grass roots effort to help those affected TODAY with thyroid, head and neck cancer. One hundred percent of all donations will get into the hands of cancer survivors to defray costs and help advocate for those with no voice.
You can help! Go to the website, buy a shirt, make a change, make a difference. Peanut would be proud, and if you by chance happen to know a bazillionaire, tell them to call me.
Tina Withrow is an independent cancer navigator and patient advocate at Health-Sync. If you or someone you know needs help navigating a health-care crisis or cancer, contact Tina at 214-546-2215 or email her at twithrow@health-sync.net.
