I got cancer after using Roundup. Settle this class action lawsuit now | Opinion

I am a Roundup cancer victim, and I support the $7.25 billion Roundup settlement because it means people like me who trusted a product we were told was safe can finally get some closure.

At just 22 years old, I started spraying Roundup containing glyphosate as a city worker in Northern California. That meant driving a pickup truck with a 200-gallon tank full of the herbicide, spraying roadsides and parks, and refilling the tank with 2.5-gallon jugs while the mist blew back onto me. My co-workers and I were not required to wear protective gear, not even gloves or goggles. We all felt as if Roundup was safe to use. In fact, at a safety seminar before we started, the instructor said that Roundup was so safe that “if it didn’t taste so bad, you could drink it.”

After working hard for 35 years, I retired at 55, healthy and grateful. Then, at 62, cancer tried to kill me.

I woke up one morning with a lump on my neck. My doctor told me not to worry — probably a swollen gland. But the lump didn’t go away. It kept growing until it was the size of a baseball and I knew I needed a second opinion. By the time I got to a specialist, had a biopsy and was diagnosed with Stage 4 Burkitt lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, it had grown to the size of a grapefruit. And the cancer wasn’t just in my neck. It had spread all over my body.

As soon as possible, I had surgery to remove the tumor, and then I started chemotherapy. My kidneys failed the night before my first session. Each round of chemo meant five days in the hospital. My immune system was so wiped out that I couldn’t be around other people. Even a 100-degree fever could have been deadly.

I brought a portable speaker to every session and played rock and roll instead of watching TV. That’s how I got through it. After the chemo treatments, I developed skin cancers that I will continue to monitor and treat for the rest of my life. There are other side effects from the cancer and the chemo that I will have to face as they arise.

It was actually a friend I made during chemo who first suggested that my cancer might be linked to my years of Roundup exposure, and who encouraged me to look into legal action.

I’ve always believed that when you do something wrong, you should be held accountable for it. After learning more, what motivated me to sue Monsanto for my cancer was the hope that we might force better labeling, better protection for workers and fewer people going through what I went through.

Before my diagnosis, my wife Johnnie and I had a full life. We traveled, hiked and walked on the beaches near our home. We’d drive down to Southern California to see our grandkids. Our home was filled with family during the holidays. In September of last year, we had to close that chapter and sell our home because I could no longer take care of normal maintenance like I used to. We now rent a smaller home in a nearby town that is closer to family who can help us.

The neuropathy from chemotherapy has settled into my hands and feet permanently, and it keeps getting worse. The bottoms of my feet feel like they’re on fire. My right foot feels like it weighs 20 pounds. Standing at the sink to do dishes is now a real challenge instead of a regular chore. I can’t drive long distances before my hands and feet go numb.

This August, Johnnie and I will celebrate 50 years of marriage. We’re going to play our wedding song, “Boogie with Stu” by Led Zeppelin. We won’t be able to dance together the way we once did. But I’ll be dancing in my chair, because I’m still here, and she is still my bride — and that counts for something.

The $7.25 billion class action settlement is the right path forward for Roundup victims like me. I’ve been dealing with this for years now, and I know plenty of people are sicker than me and don’t have unlimited time to wait for a trial that may never come. This settlement is designed to ensure that everyone who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma from Roundup gets something, including people who used Roundup and are diagnosed with the disease in the future.

For me, this settlement means I can finally put these papers away and never have to look at them again. I hope other plaintiffs and Judge Timothy Boyer will give thousands of families like mine the chance to do the same.

Robert Kirby is a California resident and class member of the proposed $7.25 billion Roundup settlement pending in the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri in St. Louis.