Dear Cancer
Each year we ask the AYA cancer community to submit letters to cancer to express their feelings about how cancer has changed their lives. People explore an array of emotions in these letters, including anger, sadness, gratitude, and hope.
Want to submit an article or write your own letter to cancer? Click Here.
I So Want To Be Around To Wish You A Warm, “Goodbye.”
Shortly before you and I became closely acquainted, I was sixty years old, bouncing back from congestive heart failure, and at a crossroads in my life. I knew I could not continue working for the rest of my life and I wondered what I was going to do after I retired in five, or six more years.
Read More...Without The Bad, How Can There Be Good?
How do I tell someone new that I meet that I’ve been through cancer? Should I? Will it come up naturally? This is one of the ways my battle with cancer plagues me on a daily basis.
Read More...You Give Strangers a Reason to be Friends
Dear Cancer, Sometimes I imagine you as an animated character, like the chef in the Little Mermaid, the one that chases Sebastian the crab everywhere, wanting to boil him alive. You’re unrelenting, like that chef, and you keep coming and coming. It’s not fair. And what’s more, you keep wanting to boil CHILDREN, not crabs. […]
Read More...A Goodbye Letter to my Breasts
I guess I owe you an apology. I’m sorry it took me so damn long to love you for what you were.Remember when I was little, and I ran around with balled up napkins and water balloons under my shirt?
Read More...Today I Say Thank You
I assume you get a lot of hate mail, I know I don’t often hear your praises, but today I’m here to thank you. I know it must feel like I haven’t noticed all you’ve done for me, like a parent who is seldom thanked for all they do, your existence in my life is so second nature I’ve not stopped long enough to acknowledge you much.
Read More...#SorryNotSorry
It’s been a year. Fuck you. (x a billion). You took over my life. I’m trapped. I can’t do anything I used to do. I hate feeling so tired. You make me walk like a 70-year-old woman. Everyone walks miles ahead of me.
Read More...Not Today Cancer
Dear Cancer, I hate you. I hate everything about you. You latched yourself onto my breast and created a fast-growing invasive tumor that decided to travel to other essential parts of my body. You do not care who I am. You do not care about my family, my heart, or my mind. You only care […]
Read More...Eyes Wide Open
I know we got off to a rocky start in our relationship, I guess that is something that could have been expected, considering our relationship was unlike most. I was busy trying to kill you, while you were busy trying to kill me… it’s a bit hard to get to know someone or something under those circumstances.
Read More...Living My Life
Although you may always be a part of my body you are no longer allowed to be a part of my life. I was diagnosed at a younger than usual age with you. I was only 30 and was told I had lung cancer.
Read More...Bring It On Cancer
I’m grateful you came to me. You made me realize who I am and have brought far more good into my life than bad. I recognize what you are doing to me is nasty, messed up, and depressing but you will never depress me, and you will never break me.
Read More...