Commentary: I just ask myself, 'What's in it for me?'

  • Published
  • By Geoff Janes
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  If we were living 100 years ago, by this point in my life most of my family would probably be dead.

My wife almost certainly would have died during childbirth with our son -- after a picture perfect pregnancy, she developed toxemia during labor, and our son had to be delivered by Caesarean section. Had that happened, my daughter would never even have been born.

Although C-sections have been performed for hundreds of years, more often than not, the mother died back then. America in the early 1900s didn't have a hospital on every corner, and even fewer surgeons were available to aid the ailing masses.

Even if my son had been fortunate enough to survive the procedure, he would probably have succumbed to appendicitis at the age of 7. My father had a heart attack several years back that required a triple bypass, and my mother fell ill with sepsis a couple of years ago and nearly died even with today's medical capabilities.

Yes, if it were 100 years ago, I would've already buried most of my family.

Thankfully, there have been medical advances through the years that have made all of those things treatable. But those advances aren't free. Billions of dollars and countless hours of research are required to find new ways to increase longevity and improve quality of life for all of us.

Luckily, there's an easy way for the average person to help.

When the combined federal campaign booklet and donation sheet landed on my desk this year, I already knew I wanted to contribute. The real challenge is deciding which charity to support. Everyone has been affected by something - it might be cancer, HIV or diabetes, but then again it could be domestic violence or alcohol and drug addiction - everyone has been touched by something.

And if they haven't, maybe they just want to give back to their local community or youth programs - there's a way to do that too. Regardless of what it is, there is an agency included in the CFC booklet that everyone can relate to and support.

It's pocket change - the same amount of money I can dig out of the sofa or that gets fished out of the laundry each month. But en masse, that pocket change can add up to the billions of dollars it takes to fund the scientists and doctors doing countless hours of research needed to find cures to illnesses that shorten our lives daily.

It's a pretty easy decision for me to support CFC. I just ask myself, "what's in it for me?"  And then I think about all the people who I wouldn't be sharing my life with if it weren't for the medical advances made in the last 100 years.