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EXTENDING COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATIONKatherine Wilson: Remembered forever by Michelle Lilly She would lose a five-year battle with lung cancer but in the process leave a lasting legacy.
Many of Anne Wilson’s photographs have been shuffled through over the years with little appreciation of the moments she was attempting to capture. She isn’t exactly an award-winning photographer. “I’m a horrible photographer,” she explains. “Most of the time in the pictures I’ve taken, the people don’t have heads or other important body parts.” One of her photographs, however, is now an international symbol of hope and inspiration to people whose lives have been affected by cancer. More than 2,000 entries from 43 countries were submitted to the 2006 Lilly Oncology on Canvas competition. Subtitled “Expressions of a Cancer Journey,” the program, presented by Eli Lilly and Company in partnership with the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), recognizes artwork and narratives that effectively portray what gives the cancer journey meaning. Anne Wilson’s entry, “This is Not a Dress Rehearsal,” was named Best of the United States. The journey began in April 2000 when Anne and John Wilson’s youngest child, Katherine, was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer at age 23. Anne’s winning photograph proudly displays Katherine and her father in front of their house in Morganton, N.C., with hats raised in the air to expose their shiny bald heads. John had shaved his head in empathy with his daughter’s loss of hair from chemotherapy, but their smiling faces show no signs of despair. Anne chose the title “This is Not a Dress Rehearsal” because it was a statement that Katherine used often, and it symbolized her unrelenting drive to make the best of life. “That was something Katherine believed in, even as a child—that life is not a dress rehearsal; this is the one chance we get,” Anne says. During Katherine’s first year of nursing school at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, she felt a crackling sensation in her left lung. When heard through a stethoscope, the crackling sounded suspiciously similar to a pathological lung sound she was learning about in school. It was the beginning of an intense, five-year battle that would end in her death but would leave a lasting positive impact on those who knew Katherine and heard her story. Despite the discouraging diagnosis, Katherine’s willpower to become a nurse remained strong. The aggressive radiation and chemotherapy treatments she received made it difficult to continue regularly with class work, but other nursing students and faculty, along with Katherine’s family and friends, did what they could to help her keep pursuing her goal. Although her dreams seemed unreachable to some, especially when previously treated metastasis in her brain caused crippling double vision, she refused to give in to the disease. According to her mother, Katherine had been “flying by the seat of her pants” her whole life. Anne has countless stories of Katherine getting into difficult and frustrating situations with friends but always coming out with a smile on her face. The same free spirit and sense of humor that carried Katherine through life before her diagnosis continued afterward. “Katherine, even at the end, had an incredible sense of humor,” says Anne. “It’s hard to imagine that anybody could think about anything to laugh about at that point, but she did.” Through independent study courses and audiotaped textbooks, recorded by her mother, Katherine was able not only to complete her classes, but excel. Her hard work and academic achievement brought an invitation to join the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. “I was there when Katherine was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau,” Anne recalls. “That was so wonderful for her to have that recognition. She just worked so hard.” On Jan. 17, 2004, Katherine spoke at a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center event in hopes that her story would help prompt members of the state legislature to allocate funds for a new UNC cancer center and encourage supporters to advocate for the project. Plans to build a new center had been proposed for several years, but the legislature had not allocated funds for the massive project. Katherine’s supporters knew her strong words and shining spirit could help convince people to reconsider. “I’ve learned, and am still learning, how to live today without looking too far ahead—to make the best of whatever is going on, to find something good in even the worst of days,” Katherine said in her speech. “I’ve learned that despite having cancer, I am an extremely blessed person.” Her compelling words were recorded and sent to key legislators. On August 5, 2004, three months after Katherine graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley signed a bill to provide funds for the new North Carolina Cancer Hospital, the future clinical home of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The desperate need for aggressive lung cancer research was one of Katherine’s greatest concerns. According to the Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA), www.lungcanceralliance.org, lung cancer is expected to kill more people in 2007 than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined. Despite the large numbers, the survival rate for lung cancer has not improved in 30 years. Katherine believed that lack of funding and research for lung cancer stemmed from stereotypes. “I also had the misconception that only old men who’ve smoked for 30 years get lung cancer,” she shared during her speech. “But since my diagnosis, I’ve learned that more and more people are getting lung cancer who have never smoked.” Recent research (Wakelee et al., 2007) indicates that close to 20 percent of lung cancer cases in females and around 8 percent in males occur in people who have never smoked. Those statistics suggest that 30,000 people who have never smoked may be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, about two-thirds of them women (Lung Cancer Alliance, 2007). For Katherine Wilson, years of radiation and chemotherapy, together with five relapses of the disease, finally took their toll. She lost her courageous battle with lung cancer on Feb. 16, 2005, at the age of 28. Her inspirational message, however, continues. Ann Stegall, clinical coordinator at UNC, wrote a heartfelt message for Katherine’s memorial service. “I will tell Katherine’s story to other patients in their worst times. … a story that says that love prevails and that if you give in to the love, boundless gifts will be given” (What people say, n.d., ¶53). Katherine learned before her death that a scholarship fund in her honor was being established. She couldn’t believe she was going to be “remembered forever.” The Katherine Wilson Scholarship, started and continued by several of Katherine’s close friends and family members, is the most successful grass-roots scholarship effort in the history of the nursing school. Just to begin the process, Katherine’s friends had to raise $100,000. They met that requirement within months of announcing their intentions. The scholarship is offered to an undergraduate nursing student who has overcome significant obstacles in his or her life, exemplifies academic achievement and has a desire to pursue a nursing career in end-of-life issues or oncology. Anne and John Wilson, along with their sons, J.D. and Fletcher, have not given up on Katherine’s vision of increased funding and research for lung cancer. On March 1, Anne spoke at the Eli Lilly Oncology National Sales Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, to further spread her daughter’s message of hope in the face of adversity. “It’s just wonderful to be able to share Katherine with people,” Anne says. RNL To make a gift to the Katherine Wilson Scholarship Fund, contact Norma Hawthorne, director of advancement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, at +1.919.966.4619 or norma_hawthorne@unc.edu. —Michelle Lilly, a senior at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, is an editorial intern for the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. References Lung Cancer Alliance. (March 5, 2007). Lung Cancer Alliance commends research on non-smoking cancer cases. Retrieved March 7, 2007. Lung Cancer Alliance. (n.d.). The facts about lung cancer. Retrieved March 7, 2007. Wakelee, H.A., Chang, E.T., Gomez, S.L., Keegan, T.H., Feskanich, D., Clarke, C.A., et al. (2007). Lung cancer incidence in never smokers. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 25(5), 472-478. What people say: Tributes to Katherine. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2007, from http://nursing.unc.edu/development/kws/tributes.pdf Photos of Katherine and John Wilson and Katherine and Amanda Greer by Anne Wilson Other photos by Michelle Lilly |
