Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

The Hope Tree

Money doesn't grow on trees. Neither does hope.

But The Hope Tree, a book for young children just released in paperback by Komen for the Cure, helps hope grow in families where a parent has cancer.

Power, Not Magic

In my March 28, 2008 post, Knowledge is Power?, I addressed the importance of context when you are learning facts. Healthy Survivors also keep the power of knowledge in perspective.

Cancer Vision

"My cancer has re-defined me...It redefined my businesses...my relationships with my adult children and their children...with my wife...," wrote James Kos, in a moving response to my last post.

His comments remind me of the early years of my survivorship. When illness forced me to hang up my white coat and stethoscope, I asked, "If I am not a practicing physician, who am I now?"

Finish This Sentence: My Cancer...

NPR's Leroy Sievers wants to know what he can learn from his cancer. Today he asks his readers to finish this sentence: My cancer...

I immediately thought of Charlotte Lankard, an amazing woman whom I met last week and about whom I'll be writing in the coming weeks. I'm halfway through reading her book, IT'S CALLED LIFE, and want to finish it first. But in an early chapter she says something germane to Sievers' challenge.

The surprise gift: aftereffects

Everyone knows cancer treatment can be grueling. But after it's over, it's supposed to be over. Right?

Survivorship is a modern phenomenon, thanks to advances in cancer therapies. But this survivorship has been won at some cost: Aftereffects are common after completion of treatment.

Wendy's Eagles Soar

Healthy Survivors find things to lift their spirits and convince them, even if only for a moment, that life makes perfect sense. So take a moment to imagine you are walking with Wendy's Eagles, one of 13 teams walking in the 2008 Dallas Lymphomathon.

The Truth About Knowledge

The PBS special, The Truth About Cancer, stirred a variety of responses on my last post. Pat felt a loss of hope for her husband's survival while Julie felt affirmed by realistic stories that offered some balance to the many high-profile survivors' success stories.

If facts are facts, and if viewers already know that cancer is a life-threatening disease, how could a television show affect viewers' sense of hope?

The Truth About Cancer?

PBS aired its show, The Truth About Cancer, on April 16th. My April 13th post presumes that the truth Garmon wants everyone to know is this: In 2008, people - nice people who deserve to live - die of cancer. But this is not news to anyone, is it?

Hands Up and Down

In 1992, I attended my first national meeting of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, the oldest national organization by and for survivors. Spontaneous conversations with co-survivors during breaks and meals complemented the polished presentations of speakers in plenary sessions and workshops.

One story has stood out all these years. I'm not sure who said it, but in the context of explaining the work of survivors at the NCCS a veteran survivor described a person with one hand reaching up in the air and the other hand reaching down toward the ground. 

Inside A Hero of Healthy Survivorship

My February 12th post, Randy Pausch: A Model Healthy Survivor, discusses how this 47-year-old professor and father of three young children both accepts the reality of his terminal pancreatic cancer and hopes for long life.