Share Your Cancer Story
We are looking for people living with cancer who are interested in raising awareness and providing valuable insight into what life with cancer is really like. Sign up to Learn More.
Lucy has experienced health issues since she was a teenager. These have carried out throughout her life and into adulthood. Here she shares which symptoms led to her multiple diagnoses, what it’s like living with three distinct conditions and the advice she would…
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There is a very real stigma surrounding lung cancer. Many people believe that the only way you can get lung cancer is through smoking–this is incorrect. Although smoking tobacco is by far the leading cause of lung cancer, it can also be due…
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In Dallas, Texas, in the late 1970s, Gail Henkin was the youthful, earnest subject of a photoshoot. She smiled. She gazed at the camera. She felt a flutter of pride. Despite her grandmother’s death from lung cancer, she held a cigarette—and many poses—as…
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This story was written by community member, Frank Noll. Don’t forget to leave a big THANK YOU for his advocacy work in the comments below. Many people think that someone with advanced lung cancer is fairly old, frail, infirmed and probably a cigarette…
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This is the second of two articles about being a care partner to someone with terminal cancer. Click here to read Part 1. If you would like to share your health experiences, please sign up here. Tiffini Joseph lost her loving mother to lung cancer in…
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This is the first of two planned articles detailing the experiences of a lung cancer care partner. If you would like to share your health experiences, please sign up here. Tiffini Joseph works long hours at night as a hospital nurse, while also raising…
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Jane Gardner never wanted to become a full-fledged member of “the cancer frequent flier’s club.” Nobody does. Since she was first diagnosed with cancer 20 years ago, Gardner has survived breast cancer, melanoma, ovarian cancer, and lung cancer. And just when she thought…
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We asked the Health Stories Project community about their personal experiences with cancer — particularly the hardest parts — and they didn’t sugarcoat it. It’s challenging sometimes in ways they couldn’t anticipate.
“Dan told him I’d be unleashing a tsunami against lung cancer,” says Borondy Kitts. “So I think he was okay with it.”
According to the American Cancer Society, more people die of lung cancer each year than of breast, prostate and colon cancer combined. And stigma may be a contributing factor. People are ashamed to tell others that they are having possible lung cancer symptoms…
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Before the 1980’s the definition of a “cancer survivor” was someone who had shown no evidence of cancer for five years. But groups like the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) recognized the need “for language that truly told the story of…
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Health Stories Project was created to give people opportunities to share their personal health experiences and to learn from the experiences of others.