Longest Living Mesothelioma Survivor Offers Hope to Observers of Mesothelioma Awareness Day
As mesothelioma patients, advocates and health professionals prepare for the 11th annual Mesothelioma Awareness Day on September 26th, the world’s longest-living documented survivor of mesothelioma is about to celebrate his 71st birthday. It is a milestone that few expected him to see. Australian Paul Kraus is the author of “Surviving Mesothelioma and Other Cancers: A Patient’s Guide” and an 18-year survivor of one of the most deadly types of cancer known to medicine. Kraus, who was born in a Nazi labor camp in October of 1944, was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma in 1997. Like so many others, he had been unknowingly exposed to asbestos, the primary cause of mesothelioma, while working at a factory during his vacation as an undergraduate…