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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Breast Cancer at 26

by Megha Agarwal August 9, 2019

Exactly a month before my 26th birthday, I was told I had breast cancer. Sounds heart-breaking? Weirdly enough, it wasn’t. When my weeping mother sat next to me and told me that the lump I had felt and gotten tested was positive, I smiled.

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Life After Cancer Treatments

by Julie Erwin August 1, 2019

I wouldn’t wish chemo on anyone. There were days that I could barely get out of bed to go to the bathroom, but I did it. I had to. I had to keep going. I didn’t want to die. I wasn’t ready then, nor am I now.

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The Balance of Being a Caregiver and a Mother

by Karla Flook July 30, 2019

Something a mother should never hear. On October 18, 2000, my 15 year old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. At that point in my life, I considered myself a veteran mom.  I’m not indicating that I thought I had all the answers, because I knew I didn’t.  Teenagers can drive that point home quickly.  But […]

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Just Keep Breathing: Coping With the Loss of a Young Adult Child to Cancer

by Pat Taylor July 25, 2019

I think that is the key word: choose. We can either choose to follow our child into the grave or learn to live without them. Live or die? Cancer stole their young lives… will it steal yours, too?

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Cataclysmic Attachment Trauma

by Kim Buff July 18, 2019

Having been in the cancer world for over a decade, and in the front-lines with families spanning that entire timeframe, I have had the opportunity to directly witness both personally and through association, the ongoing impacts of cataclysmic attachment. 

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To Live, Die or Advocate: A Mother’s Choice

by Pat Taylor July 15, 2019

What is a mother to do when she first hears that her healthy, funny, bright, charismatic daughter has been diagnosed with cancer at age 23? Stand by her side, of course.

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You are Not a Label that Reads “Survivor”

by Mary Beth Collins July 12, 2019

The only person evaluating the quality of your life stares at you in the mirror. And hopefully smiles back at you.

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Surviving Incurable Cancer With the Help of Humor

by Jeffrey Neurman July 9, 2019

The Help of Humor Six years ago, soon after the birth of my second son, I acknowledged my 40th birthday. (I say acknowledged – and not “celebrated” – as I do not know of anyone who ever rejoiced at the notion of hitting forty, even if it is the new 30, which I never heard […]

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Mom as an Advocate

by Jean Ellsworth-Wolk July 4, 2019

My journey as an AYA advocate/nurse/mom began 12 years ago in tears on a surgical waiting room bathroom floor. y 19-year-old daughter had gone into a routine surgery with a presumed diagnosis of a large fibroid and came out with the life changing diagnosis of dysgerminoma (germ cell ovarian cancer, female version of testicular cancer).

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Weathering the Storm Called Cancer

by Ryan Fuson June 28, 2019

Ten years ago this Fall I was diagnosed with non-seminoma testicular cancer, an aggressive form of the disease.  The treatment regime was also very aggressive.  Between September and December 2009 I had four cycles of chemotherapy. 

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