“My Voice” by Liz Strobel
I am no stranger to cancer. I have met it several times over the course of my 26 years. My first meeting was my grandfather, who was diagnosed with skin cancer, though it didn’t affect me and the people in my “bubble”. Cancer didn’t enter my world until 1992. My little brother was diagnosed with […]
“My Voice” by Debbie Thomas
My name is Debbie and I am 44 years old. Around Thanksgiving 2006, when I was 41 years old, I was getting undressed to get ready for bed when I had an itch on my left breast. I scratched and felt a lump. As I felt it I knew it wasn’t supposed to be there […]
“My Voice” by Valerie Finnerty
My name is Valerie and I am a breast cancer survivor. For more than 20 years, I often felt like I was just waiting for the diagnosis that had claimed my mother’s life when she was only 48, so it wasn’t a complete surprise when I was diagnosed with stage IIB invasive lobular carcinoma at […]
“My Voice” by Meghan Cheung
After an ultrasound, CT scan, gastroscopy, and MRI, I had an emergency appointment at the cancer centre. I met the doctor and the nurse who are both awesome. Fun Fact: My mom taught my doctor when he was in high school! The doctor explained that I had a tumour that was touching my stomach and […]
“My Voice” by Amanda J. Woods
Survivor: It is an interesting word and one that has many definitions depending upon circumstances. Mine is actually the story of my life and how I found hope and meaning through the process of surviving. It is a word that I have dealt with since birth. I was born two weeks late, not breathing and […]
“My Voice” by Kristin McQueen
My journey has been more of a roller coaster than I ever imagined. On June 27, 2003, metastatic thyroid cancer stormed into my life. It is still so fresh in my mind that I could give you a play by play of that day, down to the detail of what I was wearing and where […]
“The Testicle Tour” by Nick O’Hara Smith
The “Testicle Tour” came to my attention early in 2009. I’d just joined Facebook to raise my profile. I lost both testicles 22 years ago and am on a mission. My sister says I am obsessed ! She may well be right. Three months after I lost my testicles, I made a decision to abandon […]
“My Voice” by Darren Neuberger
How many of you have ever had a cough? How many of you have ever had a cough that lasted longer than 7 months? A cough, a simple-stupid cough – who would have thought that it would have changed my life forever!! This annoying little pest started in January 2003. I was 34 years old […]
“My Voice” by Liz Solorio
On September 4, 2004, my mother called telling me she thought my father was having a heart attack. When I arrived, I found him in his recliner not breathing. I began CPR while my mother called 911. Little did I know this would be just the beginning of my new life. After four months of […]
“My Voice” by Britta Aragon
My first experience with cancer came when I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease at the age of 16. Back in 1992, the “C” word was rarely mentioned, spoken only in whispers or behind closed doors. Fortunately, I was young, and as they say, ignorance is bliss. I wasn’t aware of the severity of the disease. […]
“My Voice” by Susan Rafte
It is hard to believe that it has been 15 years since my status changed to Cancer Survivor. That moment in time is as vivid to me as other remarkable, tragic moments in history that I have lived through. The clarity of my memories of ‘where I was’, and ‘what I was doing’ when the […]
“My Voice” by Lindsay Reakes
My cancer journey…and nightmare started in 1999. I was 16 years old and invincible. I had rocked the SAT’s after being the only person in my school to write them and I was offered softball scholarships in the U.S. to play college ball. I hadn’t felt like myself all year, but any doctors I went […]
“My Voice” by Dianne Tufo
As I waited from 8:30 am for two doctors’ offices to call me back, I had four boys to contend with as I do any day of the week. I had to explain, “Not today, we’re waiting for Daddy’s doctors to call us back..so why don’t we go outside and play in the kiddy pool”, with the […]
“My Voice” by Carey Weiner
June 25, 2007, I thought I was going in for a routine Mammogram, Ultrasound and MRI right before my 35th birthday, due to breast cancer running in my family. Little did I know it was the day that changed my life forever! I had known that there were issues in my family, my Grandmother and […]
“My Voice” by Jerry Kelly
My first contact with cancer was losing my grandfather to colon cancer. I can still remember my dad struggling to tell me of the diagnosis. The word survivor was never mentioned back then. Thirty years later I faced the same struggle telling my daughters that their grandfather had brain cancer. My dad fought strong for […]
“My Voice” by Jillian
My experiences with the most profane word in the English language, “Cancer” has given me a life that I truly appreciate and it is because of that ”C” word, that I now live each day with special meaning and purpose. There are experiences in life that test the very fiber of your being, for me […]
“My Voice” by Lora Lee Boynton
I am not a cancer survivor – I am a Cancer Warrior! ‘It is cancer I’m afraid.’ My surgeon laid his hand flat on his desk like a silent gavel coming down following a verdict. Having already had cancer as a young girl, I never thought I would hear those words again. I had done […]
“My Voice” by Andy Anderson
The one phrase that defines me more than any other is ‘Cancer SURVIVOR’! It’s that simple – but behind that simplicity lies a rather complicated story. I was diagnosed with seriously-advanced Testicular Cancer on 16 May 2000, just 3.5 months short of my 51st birthday. My cancer had spread from the testicle – a grapefruit-sized […]
“My Voice” by Ria Vanden Eynde
I’m surviving two cancers, thyroid and breast. They were diagnosed about nine months apart. The thyroid cancer was found after my physiotherapist, working on my shoulder, told me to have my thyroid checked because it felt swollen to her. For a long while, I thought it might be a benign thing, not needing intervention up […]
“My Voice” by Ian Broughall
It was on the 13th of June 1985, and I had made a brief appointment with Doctor Dixon in The Brighton Hill GP Surgery (it is funny how clear all of this still is). Just to have a quick chat. I made the first appointment at 9 a.m., because I had a very important business […]
“My Voice” by Ron Sparks
The scariest words you never want to hear are “Mr. Sparks, we don’t know what that mass is in your neck and it may be malignant.” That sentence turned my life upside down and inside out. Nothing thereafter would ever be the same. It all started so innocuously in late August 2008. My girlfriend, Carey, […]
“My Voice” by Katie Roosa
March 24, 2008 was the day that I got news that changed my life; that was the day I heard the words: “You have breast cancer”. At first I thought there was some sort of mistake, I had a lump removed, but I was only 20 years old. I have no family history of breast […]
“My Voice” by Gary Eudy
My Name Is Gary Eudy. I am 55 years old and was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2004. I had a colon resection in 2004 and thought my cancer was in remission. My checkups had gone down from 3 to 4 and then every 6 months. When I asked for my lab results in May […]
“My Voice” by Julie Cignarella
I woke up on the morning of Tuesday, October 14, 2003 like any normal day. I was out the night before at a local bar watching the Red Sox play the Yankees at Fenway. I had fallen asleep on the couch, but awoke in the morning for work and didn’t feel right AT ALL. I […]
