The Elephant in the Room is Cancer. Tea is the Relief Conversation Provides.

January, 18th 2025: Join us for food, drinks, dancing, and author sharing — all to support our mission. Learn more here!

Survivorship

The stories and experiences are written by people after cancer treatments. These stories are written for those learning how to get back to work, college or just trying to be themselves again. Just getting past treatments isn’t enough, it is surviving and thriving that is key to being you again.

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Permission Slip

by Molly Gaynor August 24, 2026

Immature. Iconic. Classic. If you grew up when I did, those three words easily describe Blink-182. And if you had told my younger self that Blink-182 would one day help me process cancer survivorship, I would have laughed in your face—because 1) that seemed incredibly unlikely, and 2) surely I’d be quite elderly if/when I got cancer.

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Beyond the Diagnosis: How Cancer Redefined My Work and Purpose

by Faith Jones August 17, 2026

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 36, my world separated into a clear before and after. I had no family history, no known genetic mutations, and I was living a very active lifestyle, so the diagnosis came out of nowhere.

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Roadside Bambi

by Sarah Cyrano

Cancer did not teach me that life can end at 31 in a bar with a dancing jukebox. no no no no no, my sister taught me that 4 years ago.

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Help vs. Support

by Vikki Ramdass-Husain August 3, 2026

Hi all, guess what, I had to google search this one for assistance. I always knew help and support to be the same thing but it’s not. Help may be considered an actual task.

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Small Wins Add Up

by Dillon Groover

I honestly didn’t know how to approach this at first. I didn’t want to sound 100% “doomy,” but at first, that is exactly what I felt cancer taught me: a complete lack of control.

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How Cancer Led Me to My Calling

by Jessica Barrett

As young adults, we often feel invincible. When I heard the words “you have cancer,” I automatically lost control of my life. Everything was stripped from me instantly.

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Where the Pain Used to Be

by Kiki Khan July 27, 2026

Dear body, Here we stand at fourteen years old, Standing is a privilege, or so the whispers told, When we were little, just barely three, dreamers chained to a stone cold bed, At night we schemed how to break free

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Winter Memories

by Gladys Morales July 13, 2026

It was October of 2018 when I passed out at an emergency room. I had been suffering from a random headache that for some reason didn’t seem to go away.

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My Unbreakable Spirit: A 2x Cancer Survivor’s Story

by Nicole Lehrer July 6, 2026

Hello, my name is Nicole Lehrer, and I am a 42-year-old two-time cancer survivor. My journey began in 2009, not with me, but with my beloved Golden Retriever, Bailey, who was diagnosed with cancer. To pay for his chemotherapy, I started working two jobs. It was just a month later that I found a lump myself.

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Connections Made Through Cancer

by Vikki Ramdass-Husain

Where to begin with this topic? Well, I will start by letting go off all my previous friendships. Unfortunately, upon hearing my diagnosis in 2018, I was very disturbed.

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