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

Caregivers

These stories are written by caregivers and loved ones of those dealing with cancer. Cancer hits the entire family hard, including the caregiver. Find inspiration and a community of caregivers sharing their stories to help lift each other up.

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Don’t Be a Hero (You Already Are)

by Laura DeKraker Lang-Ree January 21, 2022

Your child was just diagnosed with cancer, and my heart goes out to you. Diagnosis day is a day forever imprinted in your soul — “D-Day” in our house: January 6th, 1999. I’ll never forget that wash of shock, fear, and utter paralysis when our daughter’s oncologist called us at home with the news: Cecilia had leukemia.

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Learning to Love Through Loss

by Tara and Ryan O’Donoghue December 8, 2021

After a decade of chasing our dream, we were finally living it. We had amazing friends and family, built three businesses and fostered an abundant community surrounding coffee and bikes. That’s when it all fell apart.

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Is it up or down from here?

by Kayla VanBuskirk October 12, 2021

Is it up or down from here? Think of a physical rollercoaster for a moment. Now, I will be the first to admit – I am terrified of rollercoasters, and rollercoasters are a trigger for my anxiety, but for this article rollercoasters provide the best analogy. If someone invites me to the fair or amusement […]

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Untangling Survivorship Together

by Kelly McMahon September 30, 2021

At the end of May 2005, my boyfriend Andrew was diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia (ALL). He was twenty-two years old. I was twenty-three. Of all the things we were supposed to worry about in our early twenties, cancer was not supposed to be one of them.

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Parenting an Adult with Cancer

by Carrie Giest July 23, 2021

Many things weren’t my decision. Many things he had to do on his own, like figure out social security, disability, food stamps, insurance. His dad helped some, but when it came down to it, Kyle was legally an adult.

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Dear Cancer, I Will Not Thank You, Ever

by Angie Giallourakis, PhD June 1, 2021

A Poem to cancer from the Steven G. Cancer Foundation and Elephants and Tea President.

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Construction

by Caitlyn Stewart May 3, 2021

You were thrust into my life like a wrecking ball through a building. As if our world needed disruption. You marched in taking charge, it didn’t matter that we didn’t know you. We complied with your requests, dropped plans when you announced your scheme.

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What A Journey It Has Been

by Colin Ferro April 28, 2021

What a journey it has been, all it took was one day back in 2007 that has since changed the path in which my life would go. I did not know back then what to expect. I did not understand what the balance of a cancer diagnosis would be.

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A Father’s Love

by Stefan Moore April 25, 2021

As a father, I have experienced the heartbreaking agony of losing my precious 13 year old daughter from brain cancer. When my daughter, Ashley, was first diagnosed with cancer, we were shocked, felt helpless and like most parents we trusted her doctors to cure her disease.

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Crisis Management Lessons From A Personal Adversity

by Pankaj Tewari April 21, 2021

The last thing I expected from my devastating personal adversity – unexpected diagnosis of my teenage son’s combination of (not one, not two but three) cancers– was lifelong crisis management lessons.

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