Share Your Story

As I have gone through this cancer journey, I have realized that people don’t know what to say or do when a loved one has cancer. I can speak out on my firsthand experiences and offer some advice.

Music can help people tolerate and distract from emotional and physiological pain while going through cancer treatments and scans.

Creating more personal time tops the list of goals many people want to accomplish. With work time, partner or family time and social time all demanding our attention, we are constantly juggling our day-to-day responsibilities. “Me-time” allows us to de-stress, unwind and rejuvenate. Taking time for yourself allows you to renew, heal and create reserves of energy and peace.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care what race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality or even age you are. It takes no prisoners. And it certainly did not take me. I continue to remain resilient despite what I’ve been through and despite what still may be on the horizon.

Don’t let a terminal diagnosis get you down to the point where you stop living your life. Have an adventure, buy the shoes and eat the cake.

A letter to my chemo wig, Silvie, thanking her for the confidence, strength, courage and bravery that she helped me find during my cancer journey.

This cancer living inside of me has been life altering. On the outside you may think that things are not so bad. What you are not seeing is that my cancer is incurable.

Cancer can indeed be a numbers game, but I am no way just a statistic — no one is. This journey has given me a newfound perspective on life and the amazing work that Stand Up To Cancer does.

When I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, I envisioned myself in a galaxy far, far away. Just like any well-trained Jedi, I fought back when insurance denied my claim for doctor-recommended treatment.

What a force they were, those two daughters of ours: that little nine-year-old kid Valerie, gone from bone cancer and the more grown-up 37-year-old Stacy, cut off by breast cancer. When we talk of them, however, it is often with a slight grin.

When my oncologist wanted to start me on a standard treatment, I asked her why. She said some of her other patients had gotten it. She was basing my life on someone else’s results? This survivor decided to seek other opinions and became her own advocate.

Breast cancer was one of the best things that ever happened to me – and I never want it again. Now I am cancer-free and living a more fulfilling life than before the illness. Here are 10 insights and experiences from my cancer journey that continue to sustain me professionally and personally.

Only three short months after getting breast implants I would experience such severe and crippling symptoms that nearly cost me my life. This is not just another unsatisfactory online review.

I have stage 4 lung cancer and told I had 12-18 months to live. Little did I know they sent a biopsy off for genome testing which has given me six years so far. My life is incredibly imperfect, but I love every single minute of it.

A devoted husband and caregiver shares the poetry he wrote for his beloved wife, Mary Lee, after doctors gave her 18 to 36 months to live.

After treatment, this survivor was terrified of everyone and everything until her very wise doctor said, “I did not put you through all this for you to put yourself in a bubble – go live your life.” And she has… for 16 years and counting.

Four out of 100. That is the survival rate for stage 4 glioblastoma: four percent.

As a result of what I went through and my never-ending passion for helping others, I believe that my diagnosis happened for a reason – to lead me to a career in patient advocacy.

I’m running this marathon to win it. I want to say don’t let a wall stop you; keep running, keep fighting!

Most people have heard the term "new normal" for individuals living, surviving and struggling with cancer. What actually does that mean?

I don't know why my fear is bigger right now than the reality that I was a rock-star-warrior during the biggest, deepest, most tortuous experience of my life: cancer.

After receiving a diagnosis of colon cancer, one survivor started the Cancer Warrior Martial Arts Program, which honors kids and martial artists with their Cancer Warrior Black Belt and certificate for their courageous fight against cancer.

Telling my three young daughters about my cancer diagnosis was the hardest conversation of my life. Here are some tips I learned that I hope will help you navigate the conversation no one is prepared to have.

Going through a cancer diagnosis and treatment is so difficult. Thanks to my care team suggesting proton therapy, I never felt like my life became consumed by my lung cancer diagnosis.

By the time 14 months of treatment were through, I was watching a woman I no longer recognized and could not bear to look at in the mirror. I realized that to truly be a survivor, I had to readjust my expectations of myself.

The side effects of colorectal cancer and its treatment—which span beyond fertility issues—require constant renegotiation and reframing of what it means to be me.

If we have the capacity to love then we have to face grief as well, along with how it manifests in our lives—particularly through sleep.

When Joanne Lam was diagnosed with bladder cancer, her husband showed unwavering devotion in caring for her. Now it's her turn to be his caregiver.

A mastectomy can leave a lasting mark. This breast cancer survivor found her own unique way to make it a beautiful one.

A geneticist I never met in person saved my life by insisting my gastroenterologist do a new colonoscopy. Had it not been for Mellissa Clarkson, I would have battled a new cancer that may have been discovered too late.