Opinion: Cancer survivor: Don’t forget that accolade when it comes to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s remarkable life
Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last week at the age of 87, is rightfully being memorialized as a “feminist icon,” a “history-making jurist,” and as “Notorious RBG,” a pop culture legend. One more huzzah should be added to the list: cancer survivor.
Ginsburg was first diagnosed with colon cancer two decades ago, and over a period of more than 20 years beat it back. She also had bouts with pancreatic and lung cancer. It actually wasn’t that long ago that people diagnosed with cancer — people like Ginsburg, me, and the more than 16 million Americans currently living with cancer — were called “cancer victims.” We were expected to hide in shame, and too often faced discrimination in the workplace and, of course, by health insurers who viewed us as either too risky or too expensive to provide coverage.
