“Margi Maki, who has survived three bouts of cancer, has some advice for those who are newly diagnosed with esophagus cancer: Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. (Juneau Empire)
Michael Penn | Juneau Empire Juneau resident Margi Maki has survived three different cancers in the past decade. Maki said a positive attitude makes all the difference.
The 57-year-old Juneau resident remembers consulting the Web to find out what the survival rate was for her stage of cancer (Stage 4 Barrett’s Esophagus) when she was diagnosed in 2002.
The news was devastating: she learned she had a 1 percent chance, or less, of survival. (Nowadays, that percentage is listed as “less than 5 percent.”) Her doctors confirmed the survival rate was low.
“You don’t go look that up on the Internet,” Maki says in hindsight.
Maki has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds in her decade-long battle against cancer. Following surgery and dual chemotherapy and radiation treatment, the esophagus cancer re-metasised on her lung in 2006. Then she was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2010.
“Three bouts and I’m still alive,” she said, beaming, during an interview at her home Friday for the Empire’s series this month for cancer awareness.”
Read more about Maki’s story on JuneauEmpire.com
Source: Three times a survivor, Margi Maki refuses to be a statistic | Juneau Empire – Alaska’s Capital City Online Newspaper.
The Salgi Esophageal Cancer Research Foundation 