Debbie was diagnosed with lung cancer in September of 2006.
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 2008, Debbie entered the Dobson Home, an in-patient house / facility operated by Hospice of the Valley (the Hospice which Hugh Downs of ABC Television and the 20/20 Show sponsors and has a TV commercial for).
19 days later, on Monday, January 19th, 2009, Debbie passed away.
Debbie was initially diagnosed with Stage IV, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. At the time of diagnosis, the cancer had already spread to her brain, called metastasis, or mets, to the brain.
Debbie lived about 2.5 years after the initial diagnosis, which a VERY long time, exceeding the odds, national averages and prognosis estimates by large percentages.
After enduring and attacking the cancer with Gamma Knife radiosurgery, Whole Brain radiation, 7 cycles of chemotherapies (about 21 treatments per cycle), failed kidney's with her last year of life having dialysis treatments 3 days / week, and all the other 'minor' health issues that accompanied all of this, Debbie's fight ended.
She had been hospitalized at least 6 times during her struggle, took every new development in stride and never once said out loud "why me?" or any other self-pity remarks.
She is and was a remarkable woman. I was blessed to have her in my life, as my wife, best friend, lover, partner and advisor. Words simply cannot be assembled to describe the love we had for one another. Another testimony to her character - we had 5 arguments during our 8 years of marriage and 11 years of living together. And most of those disagreements were after her cancer diagnosis, and started by my juvenile selfishness.
Debbie fought this horrible disease as few others could possibly fight. Her goal was to live long enough to be treated by a new, even experimental chemical, machine or material that could fix her or at least sustain her until maybe yet a different treatment might be developed.
Unfortunately, such a treatment did not arrive in time to save her.
In the end, at Dobson Home, Deb was cared for and comforted each and every day by amazing, talented and compassionate Doctor's, RN's, Nurse Aides and staff. I cannot even begin to write how well Debbie was cared for. Almost as important, the Hospice staff served and cared for our family with equal support and compassion.
We are holding a memorial service to celebrate Debbie's life on Saturday, January 24th at 11:00am. The service will be at the Desert Palm United Church of Christ. It is at 1230 E. Guadalupe Rd., Tempe, AZ 85283. Please join us to celebrate the incredible person we knew as Debbie Stall.
More About Debbie....
Debbie was an awesome person, mother, daughter, sister, wife, boss, employee and so much more. She was so talented and yet humble, energetic, honest, hard working, a leader and customer advocate that several of her customers from work are coming to her service. Also, the top 3 sales executives from her employer, Oki Data Corp., are flying in from New Jersey to attend the memorial service.
In addition to honoring and remebering Debbie on Saturday, you can meet her daughter, Jessica, Deb's sister Rebecca, Deb's mother Evelyn and neices Meredith and Chelsea, one of my son's Ben and Rebecca's husband Ken. Members of our extended family will also be in attendance.
If you knew Debbie, you know what a significant role family played for her; she LIVED for her family and talked about and bragged about them endlessly. And if you didn't know Debbie very well, by joining us on Saturday, you can learn why she derrived so much joy, satisfaction, happiness and pride from and for our family.
Please join us for this memorial service and post-memorial service gathering to celebrate her life. The gathering will be at the Church and will immediately follow the memorial service. There will be train loads of food and beverages. Your spouse and children are invited too. Daycare will be available and provided by the Church for the kiddies.
Meanwhile, we need to help stop this insidious disease. In lieu of flowers or other gifts or gestures of condolences, Debbie requested that you please consider contributing to The Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA). This is the organization where Debbie and I gave to and supported. It is the organization whom we believe has the best shot at becomming the lung cancer version of the Susan G. Komen Foundation (for breast cancer).
Their main website is:
http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/
This is the organization which also has the most momentum, resources and clout. They need our financial assistance to fund on-going advocacy, Federal and State political policy and funding of research and trials to quash this disease.
The LCA is helping to educate federal & state policy leaders on the need for greater resources for lung cancer research including prevention, early detection, and treatment.
This is not a disease confined to smokers. DEBBIE WAS A NEVER-SMOKER! Over 30% of lung cancer victims are NEVER-SMOKERS. So much educating needs to occur to help remove the stigma which lung cancer has received due to smoking.
The LCA has partnered with FirstGiving.com to allow us to setup a web page dedicated to Debbie, yet have the funds be directly deposited into the working bank account for the LCA. The contribution page is here:
http://www.firstgiving.com/debstall