Archer?s mission: Raising awareness for lung cancer

Former Holly Springs Councilwoman Jacqueline Archer has been an advocate for lung cancer pre-screenings and awareness since she was diagnosed with the disease in 2005. She has worked with state legislators to get a lung cancer awareness license plate passed by the Georgia General Assembly.
Cherokee Tribune/Todd Hull

slideshow CANTON ? To Jacqueline Archer, the fact that the lung cancer survival rate of 15 percent has remained stagnant over the last 40 years is ?criminal.?

That?s why the former Holly Springs City Councilwoman and lung cancer survivor decided to advocate and lobby for the passage of a license plate designed to raise awareness about lung cancer.

House Bill 732 cleared both chambers and is on Gov. Nathan Deal?s desk to sign.

?I?m speechless, ecstatic,? she said. ?I never thought I would be alive long enough to see it happen.?

Archer said the license plate is the first in the country that?s dedicated to providing lung cancer awareness, research and education.

Advocates across the state and in others such as Washington, Oregon, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Maine have all expressed interest in the initiative.

Once available, the specialty license plate will cost $25 through the Department of Revenue Motor Vehicles Division and money raised will go to the Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Fund.

Archer, who serves as vice president of advocacy for the organization, said she will take her advocacy to the national level on April 19 and talk with policy makers in Washington, D.C., about lung cancer awareness and ?purposeful pre-screening protocols.?

Archer said she decided to take on the battle after she realized how little many people know about lung cancer.

A nonsmoker all her life, Archer was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer in 2005 after she was involved in a head-on collision.

While she didn?t suffer any injuries in the accident, Archer said doctors at Northside Hospital-Cherokee performed an X-ray of her chest and noticed she had something the size of an orange on her right lung.

She was immediately admitted and had a biopsy done to confirm the cancer, which she said was the fastest growing type of cancer.

Two weeks after the accident, Archer was on the operating table for a 14-hour surgery that removed the tumor and 85 percent of her right lung.

Along with the removal, Archer had chemotherapy and said the treatment process was ?not a fun time.?

?If I had not been in that automobile accident, I would not be alive today,? she said.

Archer was unable to sing until a year and a half after surgery because she developed a ?horrible cough.?

Even today, she gets winded easily and cannot run for exercise or stay in the heat for long periods of time.

However, she said she has adapted as she now has a chance at living and would rather focus on the things she can do rather than the activities she can?t perform.

Archer said she showed no symptoms of anything being wrong and she noted most lung cancer patients don?t experience symptoms until stage three of the disease. Furthermore, when the symptoms of a persistent cough or pain in the back do arise, she said it?s often misdiagnosed with bronchitis.

So, by the time the disease is diagnosed, it?s often at stage four, which is why Archer said the survival rate has hovered at 15 percent.

?Some of these people don?t even know they have it yet,? she said. ?That?s how quickly it takes their life.?

Archer said she?s gotten a lot of support from her initiative, ?from sea to shining sea and from state line to state line.?

State Rep. Calvin Hill (R-Hickory Flat) is one of those supporters.

Hill said Archer not only has a wonderful story of overcoming the cancer, but she also has done an excellent job communicating the fact that one doesn?t need to be a smoker to get lung cancer.

?She?s done a wonderful job and has a wonderful story to tell,? he said.

Archer, 47, served on the Holly Springs City Council between 2001 and 2011. She stepped down from her post.

Archer is a license real estate broker with ERA Sunrise Realty and lives just north of Canton with her husband. She?s also a member of the Cherokee County Development Authority. She has three adult sons and is an active member of Lung Cancer Alliance?s Georgia chapter.

Archer said she hopes her story and her advocacy will help turn around the negative perception many in the public have about lung cancer only occurring among active and former smokers.

She also said she hopes the license plate will serve as a reminder that anyone, whether they smoke or choose not to smoke, can develop lung cancer.

?I was 40 years old, very active and going strong,? she said. ?I found out I had stage three lung cancer and there was no rhyme or reason. It was a silent killer.?

For more information, go to www.gaetafund.org.

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