Stupid Cancer
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What Deck of Cards Do You Have?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Why? That’s the question in some form or another I have asked since December 6th, 2023. Getting diagnosed with cancer, let alone kidney cancer at the age of 32, wasn’t on my bingo card to
Advocating for Myself
Reading Time: 2 minutes As a stage 3A melanoma skin cancer survivor, I’ve learned valuable lessons about self-advocacy during my journey. Looking back, there are two critical points that underscore the importance of advocating for your own health. Childhood
Cancer Diagnosis: Deja’ Vu
Reading Time: < 1 minute It was a day I’ll never forget, marking the one-year anniversary of my diagnosis with Polycythemia Vera, a day that seemed cursed with cruel symmetry. Pulmonary hypertension. The words hit me like a freight train,
Cancer, Musical Theatre & Other Chronic Illnesses
Reading Time: 2 minutes I am currently in my 12th year of sole survivorship from a rare Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. From where my brain space landed in that time, I tend to look at cancer very differently than I did
A Diagnosis That Changed My Life Forever
Reading Time: 2 minutes When I was 19 years old, I was diagnosed with Type 2/Stage 2 Hodgkin Lymphoma on June 3, 2016. My life and health was about to take a 360 turn. I honestly never thought I
Battling Cancer
Reading Time: 3 minutes No chance I was expecting the words, “Nitya, these lesions in your abdomen seem like cancer masses,” when I went to the doctor for a stomach ache. Though I was sick on and off for
Surviving Cancer During the Time of Corona
Reading Time: 3 minutes 2020 was by far the worst and scariest year of my life. We were all affected by it in some shape or form. While I understand that COVID put our lives on hold, it was
Two Years Cancer Free
Reading Time: 3 minutes This weekend is another milestone in my breast cancer journey. I’ll be cancer free for two years. Queue the celebration music and gifs. These milestones always give me a reason to pause and reflect. I’d
It was Never the End
Reading Time: 2 minutes I always thought I wouldn’t make it to 18, wouldn’t make it to see myself graduate, never go to college or have a family of my own. An enemy was coming for me ready to
Helping AYAs Leading Healthier Lives
Reading Time: 4 minutes My name is Erin Coffman, and I am a sixth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Gillings School of Global Public Health. My career in cancer prevention
Believe
Reading Time: 4 minutes I was 35 when my first symptom showed up. I was 36 when I was diagnosed, and 37 by the time I did my very last treatment. It all happened over the course of 18
My CancerCon Live Story
Reading Time: 2 minutes This past August I attended my first ever Cancer Con event in Atlanta. I have always wanted to attend one of their events and have always wanted to visit Atlanta so it was meant to
Who Are My Angels?
Reading Time: 5 minutes (Written August 25th, 2022.) This was the day I woke up from a colonoscopy to find out that my issue was not hemorrhoids like I went to the doctor for, it was worse. Much worse.
Tiffany
Reading Time: < 1 minute Tiffany shares her story at our November 2023 Digital Storytelling Open Mic. She shares how she pursues her dreams despite her life setbacks.
Laura
Reading Time: < 1 minute Laura shares her story at our November 2023 Digital Storytelling Open Mic. She explains the story of her diagnosis day.
Victor
Reading Time: < 1 minute Victor shares his story at our November 2023 Digital Storytelling Open Mic and how his mom was his biggest supporter through it all.
Madeleine
Reading Time: < 1 minute Content Warming – Fertility Madeleine shares her story at our November 2023 Digital Storytelling Open Mic. She explains her story about her reflections about cancer, fertility, and life.
Ashley
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ashley shares a poem titled “Not Cancer” at our November 2023 Digital Storytelling Open Mic. She tells her story of right before getting her diagnosis.
Callie
Reading Time: < 1 minute Listen to Callie as she tell’s her survivorship story at our November 2023 Digital Storytelling Open Mic and how findinig a community of those who “get it” can open up a world of understanding.
Cancer Takes A Village
Reading Time: 3 minutes My name is Elena Del Carmen and I am a mesenchymal chondrosarcoma survivor. At the age of 25, in October 2020, between my son’s fourth birthday party and my daughter’s sixth, I ended up in
Resilience and Courage
Reading Time: 3 minutes I am a childhood leukemia survivor, having been diagnosed at the age of 11. I’ve thankfully been cancer-free since 2007 but I currently suffer from a number of late effects from my treatment, ranging from
Now I Know My IBC
Reading Time: 6 minutes Trigger warning: Suicidal Ideation “I’m sorry but this looks like stage III, Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC).” Those were the words that sprung out of my doctor’s lips that ordinary November afternoon. November 15, 2019 was
A Board Member’s Story of CancerCon 2023
Reading Time: 7 minutes I kissed the wife and kids goodbye and headed to the airport. Next stop, CancerCon 2023. I got into the Omni Atlanta at about 11pm, checked in, thanked the staff for hosting us and called
My Journey: Battling Cancer and Raising Awareness
Reading Time: 3 minutes I am Amy Nichole, a passionate photographer with a specialization in pet portraits and landscape photography. My career takes me on a journey to capture the beauty of the world, outdoors and occasionally in the
One In a Million
Reading Time: 3 minutes It started with a small, hard bump under my hair. I found it when I was around eight years old. I showed my mom, who immediately took me to the pediatrician to get it looked