There wasn’t chocolate, champagne, or rose petals, there was just his hand holding mine and never letting go. His presence and unwavering support meant more to me than a silly, store-bought gift.
Young Adult Cancer
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, my boyfriend Michael and I were still in the beginning stages of our relationship.
A survivor of Hodgkin’s lymphoma that was discovered when she was 16, Caryn Domzalski, now 35, has stayed active in Roswell Park’s Adolescent and Young Adult Program. Through them, she heard about Roswell Park’s Oncofertility Clinic.
Last October, at age 19, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had recently graduated from high school and begun working. And then I started not feeling well – I was tired and under the weather all the time.
Music has many benefits. It can create encouragement, motivation, determination, resilience, and the ability to cope. Most importantly, it can heal. Sometimes when there are no words or there is nothing to say, music says it all.
A pilot social media program at Roswell Park aims to help adolescent and young adult cancer patients and survivors, by providing a safe online space to share their thoughts and know that they are not alone.
When she was almost 11, Kayla was mysteriously sick for two months. First her doctors thought she had a cold or mono, and then a stomach bug. Her blood work showed that her white blood cell count was through the roof.
What do you do when — after planning your life and working hard to achieve your dreams — your plans are interrupted by cancer?
“My first thought was that the news wasn’t real. I remember thinking there was no way I could have cancer. It doesn’t run in my family and everyone told me I’m too young,” says Racine.
Childhood cancer rates have been rising slightly: in the United States, 10,380 children under the age of 15 were diagnosed in 2016. And there are still a lot of unknowns about why children get cancer.
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.
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.