Great Cancer Bloggers

“More than any other word on earth, the word I hate the most right now is "trouper." I despise the very concept, the mere idea that it's a even good thing to be. I loathe the pressure it puts on us to be so goddamn "brave," to be cheerful and upbeat and have a "positive attitude;" and, above all, to "fight."I'm not a trouper. I'm not brave, I'm not upbeat, I'm not a fighter. I spend an average of 2.75 hours every day crying. I cry so hard it sounds like I'm strangling, or drowning. I went to talk to a therapist, and she says I'm suffering from adjustment disorder and bereavement. Bereavement for my own lost self, the loss of the delicious life that I had worked so hard to create: the freedom, the independence, the strength, the vitality, the lust, the competence, the companionship, the dignity. All gone now . I hate what I've become. I hate what my life has turned into.And the only choices I seem to have are: suck it up and be a "trouper"; or bury my face in my pillow and sob.I say fuck the whole trouper business. Let them put this on my gravestone: "Her attitude stunk like day-old fecal matter, and we were afraid she would never ever ever EVER shut up with all that damn crying and whining. Praise Eternity!"

One of the best cancer “blogs” on the internet is written by a woman “Liz” over at "As The Tumour Turns" . This particular post was written while she was in the middle of chemotherapy for a highly aggressive stage 4 lymphoma. I follow Liz every day. Her humour, her bravery in the face of some tough times and her account of her life with a diagnosis of cancer is very moving and well worth checking out. I also enjoy some of her non-cancer related blogging, stories of her family, her business , her thoughts on the medical system- it is provacative and thoughtful work.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the whole issue of “attitude” and cancer . There is often a subtle pressure placed on people dealing with cancer to be “ brave “or be an “inspiration “. Its almost as if we need to see those qualities to make the diagnosis more palatable somehow.

Tomorrow I’ll write something about my mums attitude , but for now, I’ll just be happy that I have finally moved and I am blogging from the air conditioned comfort of her condo .

Spoke to mum again tonight, she's still sleepy , but sounded better today , slightly stronger and calmer ......she needs to heal and one of the best remedies is sleep.

Cancer is a shared experience

"As a cancer patient, there are so many days that change the course of your life. Those changes usually aren't very smooth. They're more like those sharp turns on a roller coaster, the ones that whip your neck around. The first day of chemo? That's a huge change. I don't think your body ever quite recovers from those toxic drugs that are meant to save you. It's the scan days that really determine the course of your life. There are several different types of scans: MRIs, CTs, PET scans. They all see things a little differently. But they all do the same thing. They search, they hunt. They try to peer into the dark corners of our bodies, looking for a threat.
All scan days are difficult. Waiting for the results is excruciating. A good scan day is like your birthday and Christmas rolled into one. A bad scan day sends your life careening off in another direction"

Leroy Sievers, Blogger, Podcaster, Commentator

Tomorrow, mum has a day that will feel a lot like the roller coaster ride that Larry Sievers describes. She will have the results of her scans at Roswell Park and a meeting with her doctor to decide on the best course of treatment. My sense is that once we all know what we are dealing with, we will be in a better position to plan for the rest of the summer and beyond. Without that knowledge, it feels as though we are staring into a dark abyss, uncertain and fearful of what is to happen next .

Jane Tomlinson

“Everyone wants to wrap you in cottonwool and the running was a way of showing I could still do something positive with my life .It also helped to relieve all the anger, the sense that this was so unfair and why was it happening to me?”


Jane Tomlinson is a British woman from Yorkshire who has advanced metastatic breast cancer the disease spread is extensive. The disease was diagnosed incurable in 2000.

Since being told she was suffering from incurable cancer, Jane Tomlinson has captured the imagination of a nation, she's run a wide variety of races, including the London Marathon, London Triathlon, Great North Run and a number of cycle challenges.Jane has raised over £1m for the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, which helps various charities .

In 2006, she completed a 4,200-mile, 63 day ride ride across America, almost six years after she was given six months to live. Jane’s attitude and determination has been inspirational to cancer sufferers worldwide , she has proved to others that are touched by others that life goes on and anything is possible.