METUCHEN — For Gail Ann Hausser, it started with a cough that wouldn’t go away.
It was 2011, Hausser, 46, was in the best of health, working out and enjoying life with her husband, Scott Reid.
“Truthfully, Gail was afraid of doctors,” Reid said. “We thought her cough was pneumonia or bronchitis, nothing serious.”
A month or two passed, Hausser was hoping the cough would go away. However, the cough persisted. And it was not until Hausser became very lethargic and started coughing up blood, she had to face her fears of doctors.
“An x-ray was taken after the doctor couldn’t hear anything on the one side of her lung,” Reid recalled. “Gail was then admitted to JFK Medical Center [in Edison] … that is when we knew something was wrong.”
Within three hours, from the visit to the doctor’s office to admission to JFK Medical Center, Hausser was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
“Our mindset was this happened to older people later in life,” Reid said.
Hausser underwent chemotherapy treatments, which shrunk the tumor; however, it came back with a vengeance.
“Radiation bought us a couple of months,” Reid said.
A year after Hausser’s diagnosis, she passed away in 2012. That same year, Reid also lost one of his oldest and best friends, Dave, to lung cancer, who went down the same path as his wife. His friend was a week shy of turning 50 years old.
Reid said he and his wife were disheartened by her diagnosis after hearing the statistics of how many people die from the disease every year and finding out how little funding went toward a cure.
“Most people don’t know that today, 427 people in this country will die from lung cancer; the number one cancer killer that claims more lives annually than breast, colon, prostate and pancreatic cancers combined,” Reid said.
Despite these jarring statistics, Reid said lung cancer is the least funded compared to the other cancers.
In September, Reid took his wife’s story to Washington D.C. with hopes for changing the stigma of the diagnosis from “a smoker’s disease” to efforts in finding a cure for the number one cancer killer.
On Sept. 27 and 28, Reid joined survivors and advocates from all over the country for the 2017 National Advocacy Summit hosted by Lung Cancer Alliance where they voiced the needs of the community to members of the United States Congress with requests for increased research funding and continued access to quality care.
“Because of [Dave and Gail] I participate in this event each year,” he said. “Both of them deserved a better chance to survive.”
Reid told members of Congress he believes stigma plays a big role in why no one wants to talk about lung cancer.
“You don’t know how many times I’ve heard that question in the years since I lost Gail, ‘Did she smoke?’,” he said. “Does it matter if she did? 47-years-old is too young to die and that’s how old Gail was when she left us.”
Reid said there are a percentage of people who are diagnosed with lung cancer who have never smoked.
Five years after his wife and friend’s death, Reid said he is seeing the tide slowly turning.
“More and more people are sharing their stories,” he said.
And with November being Lung Cancer Awareness month, Reid said it’s important to get more stories out there.
Reid told members of Congress that he wants to see others have a fighting chance.
“A better chance than [Gail did],” he said. “A better chance than Dave did at just age 50. Both of them died far too young. And far too quickly. Just a year or less from diagnosis to death. They had a lot of life left to live. Lung cancer robbed them of that chance.”
Reid said he also participates in the Lung Love Run/Walk Philly. The 2018 Lung Love Run/Walk Philly will be held April 28 at the Philadelphia Zoo.
“It’s a great place for people to come to get a respite from the trials of dealing with lung cancer, while helping to raise awareness and dollars for more activities we support,” he said.