Posted in March 2015

To donate in honor of Joe, click here. 

We have been touched by asbestos in individual ways, yet we are joined together by a common bond of community. As a testament to the strength of our global family, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is highlighting the courageous stories of our members with the “Share Your Story” feature on our website.

This week, we would like to honor the story of Joe. We are pleased that Joe’s widow, Marilyn, who has been able to present at our 7th and 10th Annual International Asbestos Awareness Conference.

We encourage you to submit your own personal stories by clicking here and following the simple instructions on the page. In sharing, comes healing. Remember, you are not alone.

JOE’S STORY

(shared by his widow, Marilyn)

Name: Joe

Date of Death: 19-JUN-1950

Age: 53

State: Pennsylvania

Diagnosis:  Mesothelioma

Date of 1st Symptoms: 15-JAN-2003

Date of Diagnosis: 30-MAR-2003

Treatment: Chemo trial of Gemzar, Cisplatin with or without Avastin (bevacizumab)

Date of Death: 26-JUL-2003

 

How has Asbestos changed your life? (unedited): 

Like thousands before and after him, JOE AMENTO’S LIFE WAS STOLEN BY ASBESTOS-CAUSED MESOTHELIOMA. This ripped the hearts and souls out me and our then 8 and 10 year-old children, when Joe was only 53 years old. Asbestos made me both a mother and a father. Our kids, now college students, had to go through critical parts of their lives without the love and wisdom of their wonderful father that they knew and loved. As a widow, I had to learn to care for myself and help our young children grieve without Joe’s comfort and love. In retrospect, I have no idea how the three of us made it through the past 12 years with our sanity intact. In 2015, all three of us are baffled that asbestos is still legal and that no cure is available for mesothelioma victims.

Ours was only one in about ten thousand families in 2003 that suffered the senseless loss of a loved one through a deadly but preventable disease caused by a legal mineral called asbestos. How many more have died of mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases since 2003? Perhaps another 100,000? As the Bob Dylan song goes, “How many deaths will it take ‘til we know that TOO MANY PEOPLE HAVE DIED?”

I am asking you personally to help in ADAO’s great mission by clicking here to make a donation of any amount to ADAO. Your dollars will go toward asbestos awareness, education and advocacy for a total asbestos ban in the U.S.

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