November marks Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, a disease that kills about 50,000 people a year. The wife of one of those victims says she may have lost her husband but hasn’t lost the determination to fight the disease.
“So Rodney and I were married August 22, 1987,” said Leia Bubble, looking back at her wedding photos. Leia describes it as love at first sight.
“We both ended up at the same place, in the same evening on the toss of a coin, and we just met each other; two days later, we moved in together and three months later, we were married,” said Bubble.
However, as blissful as their first 24 years of marriage was, the last year was equally as painful. Rodney Bubble died of pancreatic cancer in 2013.
“It was devastating, probably one of the worst days of my life,” said Bubble. “My grandchild literally reached over, touched the coffin, and said, ‘bye, bye,’ never said a word, and that’s the first thing she ever said, she was saying goodbye to her grandfather.”
Leia decided to dedicate the rest of her life to bringing awareness to the disease, leaving a career in the insurance industry and taking a job with Tampa Bay Radiation Oncology.
Leia is a New Patient Intake Navigator, meaning she is the first person cancer patients speak with before beginning radiation treatment.
“It means more than eight hours a day to me; I can put people’s minds at ease, at least a little bit. I can talk to them and say, ‘I’ve been in your shoes; this is what I went through,’” said Bubble. “Especially when they meet me here in the office, they are so happy to see me, it’s like I’m so happy to see them, it's like a big hug, ‘you made me feel so much better coming into this.’”
There are some parts of the job you just can’t learn in medical school.
“It’s a tough time being diagnosed with cancer and having someone like Leia on the other end, with some empathy, sympathy, personal experience, it’s very important, it’s invaluable,” said Dr. Rahul Bhandari.
Leia can only imagine what Rodney would say as she continues the fight where he left off.
“My husband used to always say, ‘they are going to write on my tombstone, 'the woman that can never say no,’ and I can’t; it just means so much, you know, and I’m sure he is just looking down and saying, ‘you go, girl, because this is my calling in life,” said Bubble.
