I recently was granted a permanent handicap pass for my vehicle. I live in a city with limited parking and lots of hills. The pass is nice to have when fatigue hits and having a close parking spot to your destination really helps.

We also have mass transit and on most buses and trains there is a section of seats that are designated for the “elderly and disabled”. Some of the trains and buses frequently get very crowded, forcing people to stand shoulder to shoulder as the bus or train bumps and grinds along. Those designated “special” seats soon have many people jockeying for an opportunity to plop down in them.

Although I have MBC, I don’t look the part of a cancer patient. Most people don’t have any idea that I have this disease. I’m also relatively young so on the outside I can easily pass for being a healthy person.

However, that doesn’t address how I might be feeling on the inside. The drugs that I take to stay alive beat down on my immune system. This produces fatigue and there are times that standing takes all of what little energy might be left. There are also many MBC patients who have debilitating bone pain from having bone metastasis. You don’t see that on the outside.

There have been times on the train and bus where I sat in those special seats and felt judging eyes on me. I wished I had a sign that stated to these people that I was disabled and deserved to sit in those seats.

That made me think that maybe we could use a “disability card” – something that you might wear around your neck. These could be distributed in the same way that handicap passes are handled. It could be simple. Just have your name and photo for identification. They could be used to identify disabled people for seats on public transporation, special seats in theatres and stadiums, and anywhere else with “accessible” seating for disabled patrons.

What do you think?