Chances are you’ve met Mike Stevens. For 22 years, he’s been the friendly go-to guy at his shop, La Jolla Photo and Imaging, the place many La Jollans entrusted with the memorable moments of their lives.
Now he’s in the fight of his own life.
“I started getting a cough in February 2005 that I couldn’t get rid of,” Stevens said. “I had it for four months. I went to three doctors five different times and they gave me 11 different prescriptions. I asked my doctor, ‘What we do next?’ She said, ‘I don’t know’.”
It was Stage 4 lung cancer. Now two years and 18 rounds of chemotherapy later, Mike Stevens is still fighting, because only 3 to 5 percent of people with Stage 4 lung cancer survive. And most don’t survive past a year.
Stevens, 46, who considers himself a walking miracle, is on a mission.
“I never bought a carton of cigarettes in my life, I’ve never been a smoker,” he said. “Most people blame lung cancer on smoking, yet the largest group of people who get it are nonsmoking young women.”
One famous example is Dana Reeve, actor Christopher Reeve’s widow ” who died a year ago this week.
Researchers don’t know why. That is why Stevens sold his shop last fall and took a nonpaying volunteer position as co-chair of the Lung Cancer Alliance in California.
Two weeks ago, he went to Sacramento to try to convince lawmakers to redirect billions of dollars received by the state in tobacco class-action settlement money to fund lung cancer. His group was told “no.”
The Lung Cancer Alliance is still planning to lobby for a new tobacco tax and is still working in support of State Senate Bill SP458, to move $30 million from the state general fund to lung cancer research.
“What we’re dealing with is the number one cancer killer that is number four in research dollars,” Stevens said.
Some facts:
“¢ 30 percent of all lung cancer deaths are from lung cancer ” more than from breast, colon and prostate cancer combined
“¢ the overall survival rate is less than 15 percent ” and for people in Stage 4, it is less than 5 percent
“¢ the lung cancer rate is projected to rise 22 percent in 2007
“¢ federal funding for breast cancer research is $2 billion dollars ” for lung cancer, $35 million
“It’s pathetic, because if more people were caught in the early stages they could be cured ” for people in the first stage, over 80 percent,” Stevens said. “The problem is there are no symptoms until the late stages.”
The Lung Cancer Alliance is lobbying for the medical community and insurance companies to adopt low-dose yearly CT scans ” at a cost of $200 to $300 each ” initially for those highest at risk: smokers and people exposed to chemicals such as radon and asbestos, and then, eventually, everyone.
“One thing that is really important ” lung cancer doesn’t just happen to people who smoke ” I was guilty of thinking that if people smoke, they deserve it,” Stevens said. “But that’s not true. And 30 percent of all cancer deaths are being ignored.”
Mike Stevens has been a dedicated Rotarian for years. He’s the guy who bought a big-screen TV for Fire Station 13 on Nautilus, which is being rebuilt by the Sunrise Rotary, and drove up screaming for help. When all the firefighters ran out, he told them, “Yes, I need help getting this TV inside.”
When he went into treatment for lung cancer, so many cards and letters came in that his wife Sue papered the walls of their bedroom with them.
They have two children, son Trent, 14, and daughter Hallie, 16.
“My kids got depressed, their grades dropped,” Stevens said. “Everybody expected me not to survive ” that’s what the numbers showed. Most people are dead in a year. I can’t tell you how lucky I am.
“But they’re doing great now. I’m still here. They’re happy. Right now we’re living with it fine. For the first year, I couldn’t even walk up the stairs in my house, I was so out of breath.”
An avid duck hunter, he has hiked Palomar Mountain to build up his lungs. After selling his business, he spends more time than ever actually taking pictures again, counseling other lung cancer patients and managed to take his family to Africa.
“I live from CT scan to CT scan,” he said. “But I’m actually having a great time. I appreciate my friends, my family and my life every day like I never did before. I never realized how many friends I had until I got sick.”
Mike Stevens had always been the go-to guy ” one to help his neighbors and his community.
“The community is bigger now,” he said. “I can’t sit back and let somebody else solve this problem. I don’t know how long I’ll live, but if I do nothing else in my life, I can save lives.”
Anyone who would like information on the Lung Cancer Alliance can contact [email protected].