January, 18th 2025: Join us for food, drinks, dancing, and author sharing — all to support our mission. Learn more here!
AYA Cancer
It’s Complicated
Cancer took my twenties from me. It took my potential career from me. A year into my post-college job search, I was told that I had a “hematologic malignancy of some kind.”
Read More...The Unlikely Survivor: Autism, Transition, and Going Beyond the 15% Colon Cancer Odds
In 2017, I was diagnosed with colon cancer at 23 years old. I was initially told I had stage 3c cancer with a 70% chance of surviving five years.
Read More...Essence of a Man With Cancer
What is the definition of Adulting? If you break out and dust off the ‘ol Merriam-Webster webster dictionary it would say, “To become an adult”. Pretty vague and straight forward, right? Nope!
Read More...The Human Being, Not the Human Doing: Lessons from the Infusion Center
My experience has taught me that as humans, it’s much easier to ‘do’ than it is to ‘be’, especially when your loved one is undergoing cancer treatment.
Read More...My Radiation Tattoos
There was a random Tuesday in May of 2025 where I had to drive to this Brutalist structure in suburban Massachusetts and get some tattoos. Not the fun kind, but three small blue-green dots that would align with precision inside a proton blasting, life saving robotic machine.
Read More...Not a Bucket List
They tell me to live like I’m dying. But I have four small children who still need their lunches packed and bedtime stories read.
Read More...Stolen Glances
Back in November, I attended one of the events Elephants and Tea hosted through the James Cancer Center’s “Care for Life” program. That was where I received my cancer treatments, but truth be told, it took me many years before I actually wanted to attend any kind of support group.
Read More...Dear Cancer, Stop Whispering To Me
Dear Cancer, You need to stop whispering to me when I am happy — when the sun is shining and rainbows are reflecting through prisms.
Read More...Pack Over Lone Wolf: Community, Words, and Miles Through Cancer
When I was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma at 33, I thought “getting through” meant surviving treatment cycles and scan days. I imagined a finish line: make it through this surgery, this chemo, this radiation, this clinical trial, and then life would return to something like normal.
Read More...Dear Cancer, Three Years Have Gone By
Three years have gone by and I still have a radiation mask sitting in my closet that once bolted me down to a cold and tall table. Three years have gone by and I have a box in my bedroom filled with every card, every hospital band, every single tangible item anyone gave to me sitting in my “cancer box” because I can’t seem to get rid of anything.
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