Does pleading deafness work?

Recently I was to do a book talk at a local library. I was early, as usual, and waited expectantly for seats to be filled.  A few people sat down and the conversation would go a little like this:
Hi, are you heare for the book talk?
Oh, are you the speaker?
Yes, I am, my name is Cherie
What are you talking about today?
Cancer, and the powe....whooooooooosh!  They would almost disappear into thin air and I would be left there, talking to myself.
What is it about cancer that we are so scared to talk about, discuss or even think about? Cancer lives in each of us all the time, it is a part of our 'make up'. Of course there is 'something' that obviously tips it over the edge and it becomes a tumour or growth.
With the fatality rate for cancer increasing, it makes sense, to me, we are better off being informed about what we can do to help prevent our own demise. 
I understand we can feel overwhelmed about cancer, it's impact and the changes it forces on our lifestyle.  Sometimes it seems every day there is something we should avoid for its cancer promoting properties. I 'get' that we would prefer to avoid those widely publicised 'evil' foods in the hopes it will stave off the cancer beast, rather than finding out what else we should avoid or have more of. I empathise with people who, like me, can't afford organic food or natural supplements to keep our bodies free of dis-ease.
There is so much more to being healthy than changing your eating habits, cancer is a multi-faceted balance within our body....but I'm not going to talk about that here, it will only take me off topic.
I know writing a book about cancer is like having an ugly baby - you know its an ugly baby, everybody else knows its an ugly baby, but no one wants to be the one to say it. Instead we turn our head away in the hopes we won't be asked to look at 'the baby'.
Cancer won't go away if we ignore it, stick our fingers in our ears and make 'la la' noises, or if we pretend it won't happen to us or anyone we know. 
I'm not saying we should live, breathe or even think continually about cancer, what we should be is informed enough to know what we can do to prevent it.  After all, you don't go out in your car without making sure there is enough fuel, or knowing the brakes work fine, do you? Why wouldn't you do take preventative measures for your self, so you can keep working optimally for as long as you can?
If you would like to know more about my book talk, please follow this link (it's free, and you never know, you might learn something new)  http://www.cnbe1.com/articles_stories.html
cancers not beating every 1
Cherie