Anita Steiner lost her battle with deadly mesothelioma (asbestos cancer) 12 Nov 2011 at the young age of 49 years. This picture shows Anita with her little girl Emma.
To know Anita was to love her! A beautiful warrior who was an Australian pioneer of social media and instrumental in setting up various asbestos related groups/pages on facebook to reach out to others living with an asbestos related disease worldwide. It is now 3 years since Anita lost her battle. She is always with me and I will continue to advocate for the sufferers of asbestos related diseases and their families and for greater awareness of the dangers of asbestos, and prevent people from being exposed in the future. RIP beautiful lady- whose life was taken too soon thanks to asbestos greed.
http://www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org/archives/5656
ANITA’S STORY
Name: AnitaAge: 49
Location: Australia
Date of 1st Symptoms: 17-Feb-2011
Date of Diagnosis: 25-May-2007
Diagnosis: Mesothelioma
Treatment: Lining of right lung removed. Chemo with Alimta and Cisplatin
How has Asbestos changed your life? (unedited): I had exposure to asbestos when I was about 4 or 5 and was diagnosed with mesothelioma about 40 years later. It took 12 months to finally receive a diagnosis. The tumours where discovered during exploratory surgery and the surgeon made the call to remove the lining of my right lung on the spot. Immediately following this I did chemotherapy with Alimta and Cisplatin. After 6 sessions of chemo PET scan declared me to be in complete remission with no traces left of any tumours. A few months later, aged 46 I fell pregnant and Emma was born in December 2008. October 2010 the mesothelioma returned and I’m currently having chemo again. My last scan showed a moderate reduction in my tumours.
I believe I have a pretty positive outlook. I have a lot of faith in medical science and the speed at which new knowledge about cancers are being discovered. I truly believe that sooner rather than later there will be a cure for this and for most cancers. I believe that using current treatments many of us can hopefully keep hanging in there until a true cure comes along.
In October last year my tumours returned. I have been undergoing chemo since then and have had some good results with reductions in my tumours. My daughter is my inspiration to keep fighting this and I continue my faith that some cure soon will be discovered.
I have been telling my story as a means of promoting awareness. For example, 17th May 2001 on Channel 7 news in Australia, there is a feature on Women and Mesothelioma where I talk about the increase in diagnosis of women with Mesothelioma. Watch it HERE.
I have a blog that I started when I was first diagnosed with the intention of keeping friends and relatives up to date on my progress. I now also use my blog to hopefully help others with Mesothelioma. For example, I talk about my techniques to keep positive when things get tough. My blog is http://blog.anitalive.com/
I am also involved with ADSVIC (Asbestos Diseases Society of Victory) and an online support network which evolved via Facebook. We call ourselves the Mesowarriors.
I am concerned that there is still a lack of awareness of the dangers of asbestos and would like to see this changed..
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