The rise of social media has also brought along an increase in memes.  Often the memes involve pictures of people we don’t know doing a funny gesture or facial expression.  Recently a picture started floating around of a man who looks like Stephen Curry just older and much thinner.  People began to call the man “Meth Curry” since methamphetamine often makes people look much older and skinnier.  Eventually the man in the picture, Leon Mitchell II, became aware of the meme and of course was understandably hurt by them, what’s worse is Mitchell is a cancer survivor.

31-year old Leon Mitchell II is a survivor of a rare form of cancer called nasopharyngeal carcinoma.  Mitchell told BuzzFeed that he was diagnosed in 2005 at the age of 20 and described his diagnosis as a type of “head and neck cancer.”

Mitchell says that when he found out about the meme, he described his feeling as being “a little bit embarrassing, humiliating, and a bit hurtful at the same time.”

He continued: “I’ve struggled for years and still do from time to time with my outward physical appearance. I was confused as to how it even made its way onto the internet honestly.”

“The thing that I think is most important to tell people (is that) the effects these types of things can have on a person is monumental!”

Mitchell took to his Instagram account and wrote a long heartfelt message about his battle.  Now his message has become as viral as the prior meme.  While we all find these memes funny, sometimes it’s important to think about the person in the picture; you never know what they’re going through.

*photos in gallery above*

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