“My Voice” by Alistair Shaw
I guess a lot of people would say I was always a bit eccentric and weird. I liked to be different and thought being normal was boring. I quite often preferred my own company to that of others which is probably why I became so obsessed with long-distance running where I could just get away […]
“My Voice” by Laura Morefield
Right after my 48th birthday, I noticed a “stitch” in my side. It seemed to coincide with playing golf or working out, so I didn’t really take notice of it as a health issue. I lived an active life, doing some caretaking during various surgeries, blogging on political matters, working sporadically on other types of […]
“My Voice” by Karen Yee
I noticed something was different about my breast. It looked yellow and a little pinched. I was 43, and hadn’t had a mammogram yet. I looked in the phone book and found a listing for “Breastlink Breast Center”. I went in on a Wednesday for my appointment. They did a biopsy that day, and I […]
“My Voice” by Cheryl Saul
Cheryl Saul, age at diagnosis – 51 Survivor of IDC, 2cm, Stage 2a, Pr-/Er-/HER- My life has been met with some pretty tough challenges but the one I have embarked upon this year has been my toughest. Back in 1983 when we were broad-sided in my car door by a speeding drunk driver who ran a stop […]
“My Voice” by Nick Smart
Smiling Hooks After recovering from testicular cancer and its complications, I, like many survivors, was faced with the realisation that life is as short as it is sweet, and with the desire to use my time well. I guess the sudden awareness of one’s mortality tends to focus the mind. I decided to follow a […]
“My Voice” by Bill Prentice
The world is an imperfect place, and I certainly contribute in my own ways to that imperfection. Yet life goes on, and for most people, they accept that they will get up in the morning, go to work, come home, do some chores, go to sleep, and do it all over again tomorrow. That is, […]
“My Voice” by Jack Gray
Jack Gray, Shelby, Ohio. Stage IV Prostate Cancer Cancer has been a big part of my lives. My father and father-in-law passed away from cancer. A very close friend – I’d call her my sister in everything but blood –passed away from cancer. My wife Chris has a rare pre-cancerous disease called Paget’s disease for […]
“My Voice” by Ed Duerr
My name is Ed Duerr. I have Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I am a survivor. Cancer changes your life, and in January 2009, the life that I had grown accustomed to, was about to come to an abrupt end. I was diagnosed with cancer, more specifically, Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia, a incurable form of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. After being devastated […]
“My Voice” by Jase Edgar
My journey as a cancer patient: “I am 99% sure that you have testicular cancer Jason!” Although not a 100% diagnosis, this was it. I was sat before a doctor in a small consulting room within my local hospital’ ER and listened to the words ‘Seminoma’ and ‘Testicular Cancer’, these words rang in my head […]
“My Voice” by Yvette Griffin
I am a four time Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) survivor. Triple-negative (Tneg) tumors are Estrogen receptor (ER) negative, Progesterone receptor (PR) negative, and Her2 protein negative. Probably about 40% of inflammatory breast cancers are likely to be Tneg. Tneg BC is one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer (excluding cancer that has […]
“My Voice” by Wendy Schwartz
At the end of 2003, I was at my gynecologist for a routine checkup. The doctor pressed on my abdomen and said “I think you have uterine fibroids. I want you to get an ultra sound.” At the time, I had no idea that those words would only be the beginning of a very long […]
“My Voice” by Gayle Weisman
Today we share the words of an old friend of the “Voices of Survivors Foundation” and an amazing Poet as well as ‘Survivor’, Gayle Weisman. Gayle shared some of her work with us in June of 2009 and I thought it would be great to revisit with Gayle’s words again today and share three more […]
“My Voice” by Betsy de Parry
On January 7, 2002, cancer called. Literally. I was driving on the interstate thinking about the goals I wanted to accomplish during the new year when my cell phone rang. Three little words, “We suspect lymphoma,” crashed over me with the force of the semi traveling next to me. And they replaced my grandiose goals […]
“My Voice” by Christina Olachia
I was diagnosed with Triple Negative, stage 2, node positive Breast Cancer in 2006 at the age of 32. Life changed for not just me, but for my family. I was dumbfounded, taken back as I had my feet knocked right out from under me. How could this happen? I was so young. My life […]
“My Voice” by April Capil
Cancer came at the most inopportune time – after I had moved 3,000 miles from home to start a cacao farm on an island in the middle of the Pacific. After the bailout contracted my local economy and plummeted the value of my newly-planted dream property on said island. After my online business closed its […]
“My Voice” by Jenny Gray
I could tell by the look on the doctor’s face! I knew the answer before he had even said anything. “I am very sorry Jenny but the leukemia has returned”. I stopped looking at Doctor Caswell and looked at my mum, she started to cry and all I could think of was how hard it […]
“My Voice” by Donald Wilhelm
What does it mean to me to be a survivor? It’s a private club that I’m extremely proud to belong to. Although the initiation to get into the survivors club stinks, I feel a kindred bond with folks with similar experiences, even though I may never have met them. Further, I feel like I am […]
“My Voice” by Robert Marraro
When Your World Comes Crashing Down Around You I remember that day long ago when my world as I knew it would be turned upside down and inside, out. It’s forever etched in my memory. It was the day after Thanksgiving, 2001. I was blessed and thankful for many things, but my feelings of gratitude […]
“My Voice” by Arlene Quezada
“It’s not about how hard you can hit but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” At seventeen years old, as I was beginning to evolve into a young woman, my life changed, and it changed forever. In November of 2002, I was diagnosed with Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma, a brain tumor located […]
“My Voice” by Andy Coles
You could say my experience as a ‘survivor’ started 6 months after my conception. I was born 3 months premature, weighing in at a weedy 2lb 6oz; the doctors rushing me into the ICU early on Christmas Eve, 1975. My parents have always said that I was just impatient to get out because I didn’t […]
“My Voice” by Sandra Miceli
In March 2005, I fell at work and as a result, I needed knee surgery and I had really hurt my back. After a lot of x-rays and physio, it was decided that they couldn’t do anything for my back and that I had to learn to live with my pain. After a few months, I went back […]
“My Voice” by Rich Ehrmann
I’ve sat down four times to write this. The first three ending in a blank sheet of paper and nothing to write. Guess I had nothing to say, now I do. It’s strange how the floodgates can open up at times. There are five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining,depression, acceptance. I’ve never gotten past […]
“My Voice” by Eric North
At 17, I was enrolled as a full time college student. My life was coming together. When I started to notice that I was short of breath, tired and just overall exhausted from doing normal activities. I woke up one morning and my throat hurt so bad that I couldn’t swallow anything. Ignoring all of […]
“My Voice” by Roger Rojas
CANCER SURVIVOR/FAMILY MAN What does being a cancer survivor mean to me? In two words my family, I have had them as my personal inspiration throughout my long and hard journey. My wife and three beautiful children have been the balance in my life when it seemed that the weight was just too hard to […]
