“I was told I had a heavy period, I was pregnant, or I was miscarrying, none of which were true. By this time I felt a huge ball, almost like a crowning baby. I came to realize if I did not get help quickly, I was going to bleed to death.”
‘What? We had a twin?!’ I had two eggs. One my healthy twin, the other forming into cancer.’: Brave mom survives rare choriocarcinoma, now advocates for others
‘As he took his last breaths, he tried to tell me something. I whispered, ‘I love you and I know you love me too. It’s okay.’: Widow shares grief of losing veteran husband to cancer
“While our friends were getting dream jobs, dream homes, getting married, and having kids, we were fighting for his life.”
‘Instead of a baby, I’ll be taking out a cyst.’ There were tumors all over my pelvic area. I was bleeding out from the inside.’: Teen cancer warrior goes into remission, urges ‘stand up for yourself’
“I had two ovarian cysts, one the size of a grapefruit. ‘They don’t need to be removed.’ They weren’t going to help me. I had to take matters into my own hands. I never thought of looking through the paperwork.”
‘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.”
‘I’m so sorry I can’t take this away.’ He looked up at me with absolute perfect clarity. ‘It’s okay.’: Parents ‘astonished’ by infant son’s miraculous response, lose him days later to rare brain tumor
“We stood in astonishment. Prior to this, he’d only known how to say one word: ‘Dog.’ My wife and I leaned in to tell him we loved him. He looked up again and said, ‘I love you.’ We held his little hand, his little frail body in my arms, and begged him to visit us. I asked him to watch over his siblings. We put him in the black Suburban, and watched them drive away.”
‘I had this overwhelming feeling I was invited out of pity. I blurt out I’m a widow. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she says, horrified.’: Young widow unapologetic for making people uncomfortable, says ‘that is their problem’
“After my husband’s death, I ventured to a kid’s birthday party with my son. I was nervous. As I started mingling with the moms, things got weird. I not-so-casually slid into the conversation that I’m a widow. I was still wearing my rings, so they assumed I was married. This poor woman looked dumbfounded. I kept thinking, ‘Should I have done this differently?’ I cannot pretend my husband didn’t die just to placate people around me.”
‘He had a really rough go. Joe is our youngest child. Neuroblastoma is a really crappy cancer to have.’: Mom says her son is ‘doing beautifully’ after battling stage 4 neuroblastoma
“‘I’m going to play soccer and baseball in the fall,’ little Joe said, now in post-treatment. I still believed childhood cancer was rare. I even believed the kids who did get cancer would be fine, assuming they were treated at the best hospitals and didn’t have any unusual complications. I didn’t believe kids like mine could get cancer. It wasn’t until I was officially a ‘cancer mom,’ that I would understand.”
‘We were celebrating 3 years of marriage. I thought life couldn’t get any better. Then, I got news no one wants to hear.’: Woman battling sarcoma cancer thanks husband for support, ‘It’s the most beautiful love I’ve ever known’
“Tears rolled down my face. I went to lie down again and the entire sequence replayed itself. I could hardly believe it. Just like that, we transitioned from ‘recently married’ to ‘patient and caregiver’ and there was no stopping it. We began writing funeral plans.”
‘I awoke with a voicemail from the doctor. ‘How did I miss this?’ I raced to the hospital. I got teary eyed, and said to him, ‘I love you, you are going to be ok.’
“I asked, ‘How could that happen so fast?!’ I screamed, ‘You can do this. Fight. I need you. Theo needs you. We can’t do this without you.’ I held his hand but, in my heart, I knew.”
‘Jenn, you can do this!’ He was admitted to the hospital just 3 months before my due date.’: Husband supports wife through twin pregnancy despite cancer battle
“Our goal for that final month was to help him walk longer distances and get his strength up so that he could be at the birth. Even though he was sick and I knew that him dying was a possibility, I never thought it would actually happen.”
