FLOTUS Visit

The first lady of the United States was here. We were extremely busy but all went well and Mrs. Bush advanced a cause that she travels the world to promote -- better health for women and breast cancer awareness.

Remarks by Ambassador Garza at the launch of the "Tómatelo a Pecho" ("Take it to heart") program of the Carso Institute
March 11, 2008

Good morning. I want to thank Marco Antonio Slim, Dr. Julio Frenk and Dr. Felicia Knaul for inviting Mariasun and myself today to the launch of this important project.

When Julio and Felicia came to see me about “Tómatelo a Pecho” (“Take it to heart”), I was struck by their experience and impressed by the commitment of the Carso Institute to this project.

Julio and Felicia shared with me the personal struggle they face, and also asked me to share a little today about my personal experiences with cancer.

I witnessed my mother’s and my sister’s courage when they learned they had cancer. From that experience, I learned that early detection is vital.

I am not an expert on breast cancer. I wish I knew how to cure it. But I am sure glad to see that experts are increasingly working together toward that goal: a cure. You’re already familiar with most of the statistics, but the one that hit me the hardest is this: in Mexico, only 5% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed in stages 0 and 1 – before they have spread throughout the body; and that 12 women die daily as a consequence of this disease, whereas in the United States, 50% of cases are diagnosed in the early stages.

A diagnosis of breast cancer does not mean that life is over. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 18 months old. She was lucky enough to detect it early, and she lived to enjoy a little over a decade with her three children.

I have vivid childhood memories of spending time in the hallways of the M.D. Anderson Center as my mother fought cancer. First a mastectomy, then a radical mastectomy, two years of dormancy, and then nearly 9 non-stop years of radiation and chemotherapy until she died in 1972. It would be easy to merely discuss her illness and treatment, but the things I remember about her aren’t focused solely around her fight with cancer.

I remember her grace, her energy and her zest for life during those 13 years. She went back to college, and took up painting. She talked about the Vietnam War and indulged what must have been her hippie spirit by letting me and my brother grow our hair long.

We spent hours at the library, which gave me a lifelong passion for reading. Everyday I carry with me her spirit and the lessons she taught me. By having her cancer diagnosed at an early stage, she was able to give us a great childhood…. That’s why I’ve said that my mother’s life had a far greater impact on me than her death. My one regret is that we didn’t talk about her disease.

In the ’60s and ’70s, people just didn’t know how to talk about it. It wasn’t until those last days when the doctor tries to give comfort to the family, by saying “we’ll do everything possible to keep her from suffering,” that my dad told us that she wanted to see us and took us to the hospital. It was then that my brother and I understood and felt the weight and seriousness of her illness.

A few days later we were swimming and playing at the neighbors’ much like any other day and my dad called us. When I walked into the living room and saw a priest sitting there – I knew my mother had died. At that age, it might have been easier if we’d talked about it before.

That was another lesson I learned: you have to talk about what’s going on. And while you may think you’re protecting your children by keeping things from them, you’re not, what you are really doing is confusing them and leaving them to wonder why.

My sister, DeAnna, was diagnosed with cancer in 1994. That year, she’d put off her checkup by a few months, which was rare for her. When she went in, the doctor found a tumor and put her in surgery what seemed like the next day. He told her that if she’d skipped her exam that year, it would have been too late.

Thankfully, DeAnna was diagnosed early, and she filled the next eight years with zest, enjoying everything that life provided her. During that time, she and her husband made several trips they had been planning for years, she saw her two daughters grow up and attend college, her son get married, and her daughter-in-law pregnant with what would have been her first grandchild. She saw the laying of the foundation of her dream house. She gave us eight more years of memories that live on in our hearts, and that we think about daily.

So I’ve seen cancer as a child and as a grown-up brother. As a brother, I was able to speak much more openly with DeAnna about her disease. But more important than the conversations between us were the conversations she and her husband were having with their children. They were open and honest with them throughout her illness. They made the most of the time they had and truly filled those eight years with life.

So you see, early detection is the difference between watching your children grow up and having life tragically cut short. It’s the difference between creating big and small memories, all of them meaningful, or leaving a void in which our loved ones can only wonder what might have been.

All of us here want the same thing. We want women to have more time to be with their families, time to create memories -- to fully live. The Carso Institute is about creating hope for each cancer patient, and their families, to not only defeat this terrible disease, but to detect it early enough to allow for successful treatment.

In the United States, because of early detection and improved treatment, the five-year survival rate for women who were diagnosed with early stage breast cancer is 98%, and there are nearly 2.5 million survivors of breast cancer living today. It’s time for these advances to be brought to women, not only in Mexico but everywhere. I’m sure that is one of the main goals of the Carso Institute.

In support of that effort, later this week, First Lady Laura Bush will be in Mexico City to formally launch the Mexico-United States Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. Our goal is to partner alongside already strong efforts such as those being initiated by the Carso Institute. We are all focused on the same goal— to give more women more time to live.

I want to thank you for allowing me to join you today to share my story and would like to close as I always do, simply asking that God, now and forever, bless the United States and Mexico, and on this particular day, all women who face the challenge of dealing with cancer. Thank you very much.