In honor of Christina Gianoplus
Severe abdominal pain sent 38-year-old Christina Gianoplus of Wilmington, NC, to the Emergency Room on New Year’s Eve 2007. After a few tests, she was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer with metastasis to the liver. On January 2, she had major surgery that left her with a temporary ostomy.
Christina and her husband, Greg, sought out Dr. Richard Goldberg, a specialist at UNC who could provide Christina with the post-surgery treatments she needed. They wanted her care to be local since they have four children. “The resource that is available to us here in our own state is a blessing beyond words,” says Greg.
As part of the clinical trial Christina participates in, she receives chemotherapy every two weeks. “My results are miraculous,” says Christina. “I had very, very large tumors in my liver that were the size of 8 centimeters – they are now down to two centimeters.”
“I want people to learn that cancer looks different. It’s not an older person’s disease. It’s me. I’m living with it,” she says. She wants people to understand that cancer plays no favorites, that it can come at any age and that screenings are vital.
To other cancer patients, she says, “I try to find what cancer can’t do, and cancer can’t do a lot of things. It can’t destroy love and it can’t destroy your spirit.”
“My care at UNC is unsurpassed. It’s excellent. They treat me as a human being and not just a number or a cancer patient,” says Christina. “I’m fun loving and a mom, and they really bring that out when I’m being treated with chemotherapy. It’s wonderful. Sometimes we laugh. I’m very thankful and very grateful to have found UNC-Chapel Hill and Dr. Goldberg.”
Christina died of her illness in May 2011.