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

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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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Grief Finds Me in Different Ways Daily

by Chantale Thurston November 16, 2021

Grief Finds Me in Different Ways Daily. In the beginning, it found me as I was grieving the future I had dreamed of – a family with two or more kids and what our shiny life would be like. See, I lost my fertility right after my cancer diagnosis.

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Me Then You

by Sarah Sandoski November 15, 2021

9/6/80. How many times have you been asked for your date of birth, like it’s a code to another level, a password at a locked door? Doctors, nurses, surgeons, pharmacists need this information before they can do their job, which is to take care of you.

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Cancer and Weight

by Siobhan Hebron November 12, 2021

I struggled with body image my entire life. My ‘goal’ figure undoubtedly came from cultural standards, growing up during heroin chic’s heyday in the ‘90s. That goal was similarly praised by my white, middle class family, even if that enforcement went mostly unacknowledged by them.

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G-R-I-E-F

by Vikki Ramdass November 4, 2021

What does this simple but devastating five letter word really mean? Grief: does it mean to mourn or cry, or simply miss someone dear to you? Grief can be described as a lot of things to many different people, but it is never an easy word to swallow.

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The “How” of Grief

by Meagan Shedd November 2, 2021

He holds up the object in front of him with a wide smile on his face. A cookie – seemingly innocent and yet it looked enough like a breast. The first Pinktober after my mastectomy and lymph node dissection, I stumbled into ‘a bake sale for breast cancer’ and “boob cookies” were being sold – sugar cookies frosted pink with nipples. 

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Letter to my Unborn Children

by Arely Acuna October 15, 2021

I always knew having you was a long shot, a thought, a wild dream / Yet night after night I prayed over my womb asking God to bless me with the gift of Life / I had dreams of feeling your every movement from within my womb / Hearing your heartbeat for the first time

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Calling All White Allies to Find Their “Something”

by Amanda Maggiotto

Two weeks after my college graduation, I was thrilled to land a job working in cancer research at a prestigious cancer center in Cleveland. I was especially excited to be working to provide better access to clinical trials for blood cancer patients since a dear friend of mine is a childhood leukemia survivor. Little did I know as a young and healthy 22-year-old, that the same friend would be shuttling me to and from appointments at the same cancer center after my own cancer diagnosis. 

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Grief as an Oak Tree

by Jacqueline Cashman October 8, 2021

When your mother is in the world, I liken it to standing under a great oak. The branches are a canopy of safety from the harsh elements; it has always been there and feels like it will always be there…

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A Life Without Parents

by Vikki Ramdass

Have you ever wondered what life would be like without parents? A harsh reality for many people out there. Yes, we are born from an egg and sperm, from a female and male. Yes, these are our biological parents, but are they the ones that make us who we are today?

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When Cancer Stole My Voice, Mindset Helped Me Find It

by Cindy Stemple October 1, 2021

Talking about mindset feels like a minefield when it comes to cancer survivorship, but I’m going to do it anyway. In a world where we as cancer patients and survivors are constantly bombarded with toxic positivity and sentiments such as “Just Stay Positive” or “Everything Happens for a Reason,” the one suggestion that felt somewhat helpful to me (relatively speaking) was to “Take Things One Day at a Time.”  

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