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Rob Lowe recalls his family feeling lost when his grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer
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Her health was turned around after joining a clinical trial that helped her “beat the odds”
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The actor is now raising awareness to increase clinical trial participation in her honor
Rob Lowe was 8 years old when his late grandmother, who he called Mim, was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“My memory of it is like it happened yesterday because of this sort of uproar it caused in our family,” he tells PEOPLE. “In those days, the odds were not good. I 100% remember our family feeling lost, wishing that there was more that could be done.”
The 9-1-1: Lone Star actor and Mim were very close when he was growing up, he says with a smile, referring to her as “my beloved.”
Lowe, 61, saw firsthand how much the disease impacted her everyday life and eventually, doctors told Mim to “get her affairs in order.” Despite receiving a grim prognosis, Mim’s health journey was completely turned around when she was given the chance to join a clinical trial for breast cancer treatments.
“There were multiple times where she had run out of options and just at that moment there was a clinical trial [that] changed the course of her cancer journey,” he says.
Courtesy of Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe and his family in a childhood photo
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After joining the clinical trials, Lowe says Mim “beat the odds” with her prolonged survival rate.
“She survived and thrived longer than anyone with her type of cancer in those days,” he boasts. “She was such a fighter and that she took great pride in being able to, in her case, really beat the odds.”
“Obviously every patient is going to have a different response, but with hers, she lived long enough to see some of the procedures and treatments that were investigational for her in the clinical trial become standard care,” he continues. “So she got to have that added feeling that she made a difference for people.”
Looking back on Mim’s journey, Lowe now wants to build off of her legacy. He’s partnering with Eli Lilly and Company to help encourage others to look into clinical trials. Only 7% of cancer patients in the United States participate in clinical trials and he stresses that those numbers should be much higher.
“[Breast cancer’s] been a big part of my life and continues to be a big part of my life in honor of three amazing women. My great grandmother, my grandmother Mim, and my mother all had breast cancer and they helped raise me,” he explains. “They raised me and now, in their memory, I can raise in my own way. And that’s raise awareness. Raising awareness about the importance of doing clinical trials and asking your doctor if it’s right for you because for my grandmother, it was huge.”
Michael Tullberg/Getty
Rob Lowe
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“Everybody is going to have a different journey. It’s not going to be right for everybody. And here’s a perfect example: It was right for my grandmother, my mother didn’t,” he continues. “But you’re only going to know that if you actually take the initiative and ask.”
Lowe tells PEOPLE it makes him extremely happy to be able to not only help others but also honor his grandmother in this way.
“Anytime you’re in the cancer phase, it’s so fraught with so many emotions,” he admits. “But to be able to marry that experience with the happiness of helping people focus on their journeys and being in support and in education makes me feel good and it connects me back to Mim.”
Read the original article on People
