As much as
I love baseball (April is too far, I’m excited about Jays spring training
beginning March 1st), every time I think of statistics, I always
think of the probability that I will develop some form of cancer in my
lifetime. It’s gruesome, I know, but
immediately out of high school I spent the next eight years of my life living
in and out of Sunnybrook and Princess Margaret hospitals, as my mother is a
leukemia patient. She’s a fighter, and
thankfully in remission, however when you’re immersed in a particular
environment for such a lengthy time it begins to shape the way you think about
everything.
What I’ve
learned about the world is that in 2015, 3,500 Canadian men will have been
diagnosed with leukemia – 1,550 will have died from it. This means that if I were to be diagnosed,
there is a 44% chance that I will not survive.
When it comes to the probability of being diagnosed, 2010 estimates determined that 1 in 53 Canadian men will develop leukemia during his lifetime, and 1 in 96 will die from it.
When these values are ascribed to human lives, and more particularly as Canadian male lives, they force me to visualize myself in a room with colleagues, friends, and family members, making the reality of the disease much more apparent as I recognize my loved ones and myself as belonging members to this demographic. There is a transformation that data undergoes when it becomes anthropomorphized through statistics, making it no longer abstract but powerful and impactful.
When it comes to the probability of being diagnosed, 2010 estimates determined that 1 in 53 Canadian men will develop leukemia during his lifetime, and 1 in 96 will die from it.
When these values are ascribed to human lives, and more particularly as Canadian male lives, they force me to visualize myself in a room with colleagues, friends, and family members, making the reality of the disease much more apparent as I recognize my loved ones and myself as belonging members to this demographic. There is a transformation that data undergoes when it becomes anthropomorphized through statistics, making it no longer abstract but powerful and impactful.
The good
news is that we can use these emotional statistics to push for improvement… Improvement in our quality of life, allowing
us to make healthier life choices, improvement in the funding and research done
to fight the disease, and improvement in the relationships we build and
maintain, knowing how precious life is.
Source: http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-type/leukemia/statistics/?region=on
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