The Elephant in the Room is Cancer. Tea is the Relief Conversation Provides.

Emotional Support

Cancer sucks.  Whether you are a patient, survivor, caregiver or loved one we all go through it differently.  Read these inspiring and emotional stories to learn how others like you are getting through their journey with cancer.

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Tougher Together: Sharing Stories of Surviving Cancer

by Marquina Iliev-Piselli October 10, 2019

The doctor finally called late on a Friday night. Holding my son in my arms, I rushed to the kitchen and picked up the phone. “I hate having calls like this,” he said. “It’s malignant.” Malignant, I thought, my brain trying and failing to grasp the enormity of the word. “You’re going to have to […]

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Our Bun Her Oven

by Kaila Jorgensen October 8, 2019

My husband and I have always known we wanted children. He teaches elementary school, and I’m a children’s counselor. It’s in our blood. So we knew, when I was diagnosed, we would find a way.  Shortly after getting engaged, we moved from Washington state to Oregon so that my husband could get his master’s degree. […]

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Surviving As A Caregiver

by Mallory Casperson October 7, 2019

Though I’m a young adult cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 24, I first heard the words ‘you have cancer’ said to my mother 2 years before my own diagnosis. 

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Lucky Me – Being a Teen Cancer Survivor and Its Effects Now

by Mette de Fine Licht October 2, 2019

Teenagers with cancer are put on the edge of their life at a very young age. The lucky ones get to live with the memories and late effects. It’s not fair to get cancer when your life has just begun. And it’s not fair, that if you are lucky enough to survive, you now have […]

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Got a Pit Crew? Childhood Cancer Survivors Start Your Engines!

by Amelia Baffa September 30, 2019

What do you think of when you think of childhood cancer and survivorship care? Ideally it might conjure up images of a team of medical professionals working as a finely tuned pit crew to meet you where you’re at physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually after you achieve survivorship status.

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Inspired to Work Together

by Vickie Buenger September 26, 2019

Erin is my favorite child to read to, the teacher of her three-year-old preschool class told me.  All the children listen, but she always listens like she means it. I knew that feeling myself.  Her face and body connected to each and every story, lighting up in anticipation of excitement, sagging when things got sad, and giggling or guffawing at the funny parts.

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Lessons Learned from a Childhood Cancer Survivor

by Mariah Forster Olsen September 23, 2019

As a long-term childhood cancer survivor with numerous late effects, I have had 39 years of experience in the medical field…as a patient.  As many of us know, life consists of doctor appointments, blood work, diagnostic tests, procedures, surgeries, and more. 

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The Helena Effect

by John Kirk September 20, 2019

I don’t use the word “super-hero” lightly when I talk about my daughter, Helena. While they have their origins, they also have an extra something special that sets them apart. My daughter is someone special; she is a cancer survivor, an advocate bent on obtaining the best care for children with cancer in our country and she is a super-hero.

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Not Like the Other Kids

by Danielle A. Cloakey September 16, 2019

I was not like the other kids, my grandma once told me. Her old cat, Cinder, always preferred me to my siblings and cousins, because I was gentle and I wasn’t constantly grabbing at him. The Christmas after I turned two, which was the Christmas after I was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, my other […]

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5 Phases of Grieving for the Loss of My Early Twenties

by Urska Kosir September 12, 2019

Hello! Ciao! My name is Urska Kosir and I come from Slovenia, like the US First Lady 🙂 At the age of 22, I received a diagnosis: Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, late stage. Just like Hazel from The Fault in our Stars would say, “I lit up like the Christmas tree,” a well-decorated one. In this essay, […]

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