HANCOCK COUNTY — When he’s not trying to help others get their lives back on track, working as the head of the county’s pretrial release program, Wayne Addison spends time with his family, including his three grandchildren.
While Addison says it’s a good life, he can’t help but think about and miss his wife, Carrie, who passed away due to lung cancer in 2018. During her fight for life, Addison was by Carrie’s side the whole way since diagnosis in 2016. He has since told others about Carrie’s ordeal, letting them know lung cancer can happen to anyone, even people who never smoke, like his wife.
Earlier this month, Addison was informed he had been nominated to represent the state of Indiana by the American Lung Association as a spokesman who has a real message. Addison was picked and named a 2024 Lung Force Advocacy Hero.
That means he’ll fly to Washington D.C. Monday, March 18 and then on Wednesday, March 20, Addison will appear before members of the United States Congress and share he and Carrie’s heartbreaking story.
“I will be helping American Lung Association advocate for a world free of lung cancer by sharing Carrie’s story and memory,” Addison said. “I am very proud to be able to do this for her, and I will be talking to various members of Congress throughout the whole day.”
As Carrie’s caregiver during her two-year battle, Addison was with his wife for each radiation, chemotherapy and doctor’s visit. During those times, he’d do everything he could to keep his wife’s spirit’s up, even dressing in clothing she didn’t approve of, including his cancer fighting outfit.
“If you take a look at some of the photos I’ve posted with Carrie, you’ll see me in a ridiculous pink and black stripped shirt and camo pants,” Addison said. “I did a benefit auction for the hospital once and the theme was pink, so when I was taking Carrie to the hospital for chemo once I came out wearing that, and she told me I ‘looked terrible,’ but I told her it was going to be my cancer killing costume, and I wore it to almost every treatment.”
Brandee Bastin, who leads The Hancock County Tobacco Free Coalition nominated Addison to represent Indiana.
“When I had the opportunity to nominate someone from our Congressional District, I just thought of Wayne because he put his whole heart into fighting for his wife and being an advocate,” Bastin said. “We’ve got a lot more to do in the fight against lung cancer and I know Wayne can help make a difference.”
Addison had shared the full story of Carrie’s fight with Brandee and she felt he will be able to leave an impact when he shares his wife’s fight with Congress.
“I will do my very best and I know Congress, those are important people, but I’m just going to tell them what happened to Carrie,” he said.
Addison has been told that all those who will be speaking before Congress representing The American Lung Association will have some training the Tuesday after they arrive in the Nation’s Capital. The goal will be to help them prepare to advocate for more research on lung cancer, including the importance of early screening. That, Addison feels, might have made a difference in his wife’s case. Carrie had a cough for over a year, and her doctor didn’t seem too concerned about it being something as serious as cancer due to the fact Carrie had never smoked.
“Neither one of us had ever smoked and we’d been together for about 35 years, and during that time no one ever smoked in our home,” Addison said.
Addison noted his wife was a twin and was born premature and had lung issues as a child, which could have led to her lung problem later in life.
“During that year when she started coughing, they thought maybe it was asthma or allergies so she’d get medicine and they’d let her go, but we’d always have to go back to the doctors” Addison said. “We finally found out that she had lung cancer and that was like taking a baseball bat and knocking us up right in the face.”
Addison feels fortunate, he said, to have the opportunity to share Carrie’s story while speaking before Congress in Washington D.C.
“You don’t get many chances in life to do something like this,” Addison said. “I don’t know all the particulars, but I will be on Capital Hill all day attending meetings and hearings, but I do know I’m not afraid to talk to them.”
Addison isn’t completely sure what he’s going to say to members of Congress, but he’s certain he’ll touch base on how Carrie went for a full year with a bad cough and never once was considered a candidate for lung cancer.
“They just kept telling her it looked like an infection in her lung,” Addison said. “Nothing went her way in her treatment and she tried everything and was just a trooper.”
While Carrie lost her battle, Addison noted that maybe her passing won’t be in vain as he can help win the war and get something done to help prevent lung cancer and help get funding for research and better treatment.
“She had a rough ending, she really did,” Addison said. “You don’t want other people to have to go through that.”
Addison paused for a moment when he thought about how his wife didn’t get the chance to meet two of the couple’s three grandchildren, with the third one being welcomed to the world just this past weekend.
“She did get to meet our first grandchild and I am thankful for that,” Addison said. “At the end of the day, doctors never did figure out how she got lung cancer, so there is so much we just don’t know.”
After her diagnosis, Addison said that doctors told them if Carrie was lucky, she’d live two more years.
“It was almost two years when the doctors told us there wasn’t anything else they could do and Carrie looked at them and said, ‘well, I guess I’m pretty lucky because I made it two years,’” Addison said. “She had such a positive attitude even though nothing went our way.”
