“At 16 months old, I watched her vomit all over herself from chemo and go back to smiling. Maybe it’s a metaphor for how messy life is: clean it up and get back to what makes you happy.”
‘After 10-hour surgery, we walked into a room of alarming bells. Nurses rushed in. ‘She’s a fighter!’: Mom inspired by daughter battling spinal cord tumor
‘Mary Kate’s eye is drooping a little. Do you see that?’ I felt the air leaving my body.’: Brain cancer warrior passes away days before second birthday, ‘She’s guiding us every step of the way’
“One day, she could barely open her left eye. You know those situations in your life when everything changes and you didn’t even see it coming? This was one of those.”
‘BOTH girls were diagnosed with cancer. They’re only 3. I created a way to celebrate their courageous lives.’: Mom of twin daughters battling cancer creates Etsy shop, ‘It will make us, and others, happy’
“All I want and strive for is happiness. I will fight and our twins will fight. They are my heroes.”
‘My partner announced, ‘I’m trans.’ It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me.’: LGBT couple share beautifully complex love story
“He had a lightbulb moment. ‘I cannot continue to inhabit this female body.’ I would be a lesbian woman part of a heterosexual couple. I had no idea what this meant for us.”
‘Brushing my hair for the first day of 1st Grade, my mom’s face grew concerned. ‘I’m fine!’ The lump doubled in size by the time I returned from school.’: Leukemia survivor creates foundation to inspire hope among community
“I was only 6 years when cancer consumed my life. Some people try to erase their history of battling cancer; I choose to embrace it.”
‘A tumor had taken over my entire femur. ‘All signs are leading to cancer.’ They removed 60% of the muscle in my leg. It was torture’: Cancer survivor says, ‘I found the power to keep fighting’
“I spent 3 days wide awake because I couldn’t stop hallucinating giant, juicy spiders crawling over me. I had to sleep with my feet in ice buckets. My skin felt like it was on fire. This was all ‘normal’ in the chemo world.”
‘Am I going to die?’ I woke to strands of hair on my pillow. My heart sunk. ‘I’m going to be bald.’ I lost my hair a week before prom.’: Teenager shares cancer journey, ‘It opened my eyes’
“I felt isolated from my friends. They viewed me as being fragile, but I was the same person as before. This shattered me. No matter what I did, I was always viewed as the cancer girl.”
‘There’s a mass behind her nose.’ Her runny nose became blood-tinged. She could barely hold her head up. I knew it was bad.’: Mom details daughter’s cancer journey, ‘Never give up hope’
“They looked up her nose. Something was there. I had a knot in my stomach before he even spoke. My mind flashed back to a Google search I had done that fit her symptoms. Cancer.”
‘Home please. Home PLEASE!’ He looked like a living skeleton. Fear made time stop.’: Young boy beats liver cancer, ‘We have a new outlook on life’
“‘You can’t eat baby, it’ll hurt you.’ We agreed he could hold them. He took a cookie out and breathed in. ‘Mmmmmm.’ Then he put the cookie back in its bag. It broke my heart.”
‘They found cancer in her blood.’ The wind was knocked out of me. I bawled like a baby.’: Single dad says 2-year-old battling cancer ‘gives me the strength to go on’
“The news came one night when I was teaching a zoom class. I remember holding onto her so tightly, weeping. I had a choice to make. Would I choose to carry the legacy of my late wife or give up?”
