A cancer survivor reflects on his decades-long experience with cancer and shares his secret to moving forward.
Cancer Survivorship
Hope was the driving force behind the new Roswell Park logo, which led us to ask our social media followers what the word means to them. The responses were powerful and, of course, inspired hope.
There was a point in my journey when I said, “That’s it; I give up.” This cancer is so different from others, and I felt that no one knew what I was going through – emotionally, physically or spiritually. I looked different and I couldn’t eat. The feeding tube was one of the hardest parts for me.
More than two years ago, when Dr. Bain told me I had pancreatic cancer, my first thought was that nothing can take my 81 years away from me. I’ve had a long, happy life and know what it’s like to overcome hardships and learn important lessons.
Weight management is by far the most personal part of my journey I’ve talked about so far. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent elated or devastated reacting to the numbers on the scale and how they are represented on my body.
Four weeks after her 33rd birthday, Crystal found a lump in her breast. When she told a good friend and co-worker — whose mother happened to be in treatment for metastatic breast cancer — the friend told her, “Don’t mess around.”
I was told the tumor was inoperable and I had two years to live if I received chemotherapy and radiation. Just two years.
There are countless things to say about going through cancer treatment and testing, but in my experience, it’s the elements of survivorship that often go ignored or are put off to deal with at a later date.
Cat is a graduate student, a dog owner, an academic fraternity member and much more. Nothing can slow her down – not even a cancer diagnosis.
A solid ten years of dreaming and planning finally came to fruition only to go up in flames thanks to a 30-minute doctor appointment on the Upper West Side. The culprit? Cancer.
Three days after Emily’s 19th birthday, she received the devastating news that she had stage 3 malignant melanoma, one of the most serious forms of skin cancer. She was given less than a 59 percent chance of surviving the next five years. In a state of shock, she felt her only options were fight or flight – to face her diagnosis head-on or to live in fear – and she chose to fight.
Young adult survivor, J.G., shares his experience with testicular cancer and how the largest, annual young adult cancer convention helped him get his life back on track.