Read the full article by Scott Thomas Anderson at Sacramento News & Review
Craig Dresang has lived in the shadow of death since he was 8 years old.
Dresang was in third grade when his mother, Joyce, was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. At almost the same moment, his mom’s best friend was also given a devastating cancer diagnosis. She was gone six months later — an outcome that kept flashing in Dresang’s young mind. His own mother fought and held on for years, which meant Dresang’s entire childhood was spent wondering when he’d lose her.
“I was always expecting,” Dresang recalls, “always anticipating.”
In the end, it was his parents’ inability to afford the out-of-pocket expenses of an anti-cancer maintenance drug that probably cost Joyce her life. That was an early lesson for Dresang about the American health care system’s realities. He’d have many more in the coming years.