Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor's Soul

“
Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor’s Soul
will not only comfort and inspire cancer survivors and their loved ones, it will comfort and inspire anyone breathing. It’s mandatory reading!”

Wally Amos
“The Cookie Man”

“
Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor’s Soul
is a great pick-me-up book. We all go through tough times in our lives. The inspiring stories in this book show us all that we can get through these events and even learn from them— that is the secret of surviving!”

Dan Jansen
Olympic gold-medal speed skater

“Yes! This wonderful book teaches us that one can make cancer a triumph instead of a tragedy! We can find the blessings... the lessons to be learned...the strength we never knew we had. I know... cancer was one of the most empowering ‘gifts’ in my life.”

Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.
author,
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
and
End the Struggle and Dance with Life

“Over the past 14 years of providing psychological and emotional support to thousands of cancer patients, we have discovered that there are significant therapeutic benefits from interacting with other cancer patients.
Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor’s Soul
, a wonderfully inspirational book, introduces the cancer patient to many others who understand every nuance of the cancer experience.”

Harold H. Benjamin, Ph.D.
founder and president, The Wellness Community

“These stories will take you by the hand and take you by the heart, and show you how much each of us can do.”

W. Mitchell, CPAE
author,
The Man Who Would Not Be Defeated
and
internationally recognized expert on change

“I loved this wonderful, heartwarming book. It reminded me of all the people I have worked with since 1974. Reading it was like sitting in a hundred support groups. You leave feeling you’ve shared something important, something of yourself.”

Elise NeeDell Babcock
founder, Cancer Counseling Inc.
and author,
When Life Becomes Precious

“
Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor’s Soul
shows us what all the blood tests, X rays and MRIs cannot possibly reveal—the true nature of the surviving soul. Through the horror of cancer, these heroes have found the honor of everyday life. By sharing their stories with us, they fill us with the power not only to survive but, indeed, to thrive. Besides cancer patients, their families and health-care givers, anyone who’s had so much as a broken nail or a broken heart should read this book.”

Robert Wollman, M.D.
Holy Cross Hospital Cancer Center

“This book is a godsend for anyone who needs some inspiration—as we all do. The stories in
Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor’s Soul
are from people who have a special insight into how to live life more fully and, in doing so, improve their health.”

O. Carl Simonton, M.D.
Simonton Cancer Center

CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE
CANCER
SURVIVOR’S SOUL
101 Healing Stories About Those
Who Have Survived Cancer

Jack Canfield
Mark Victor Hansen
Patty Aubery
Nancy Mitchell, R.N.
Beverly Kirkhart

Health Communications, Inc.
Deerfield Beach, Florida
www.hcibooks.com
www.chickensoup.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is on file with the Library of Congress.

eISBN-13: 978-0-7573-9738-7 (ebook) eISNB-10: 0-7573-9738-7 (ebook)

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its logos and marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
3201 S.W. 15th Street
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442-8190

R-09-07

Cover design by Andrea Perrine Brower

With love we dedicate
Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor’s Soul
to
Linda Mitchell—a survivor, and Patty and
Nancy’s mother—who originally suggested that
we compile it. She spent hundreds of hours
reading over a thousand stories and poems
in the creation of it and gave us the
encouragement to continue when we thought
it would never come to completion.
Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor’s Soul
would not exist without you!

We also dedicate it to
Jeff Aubery, Patty’s husband, who
spent the last six months of this project as
virtually a single parent with their son J.T.
while Patty worked to complete it.

No Road Too Steep

There is no path
so dark, nor road so steep,
nor hill so slippery
that other people have
not been there
before me
and survived.
May my dark times
teach me to help
the people I love
on similar journeys.

Maggie Bedrosian

Contents

Foreword
Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. ON HOPE

What Cancer Cannot Do
Source Unknown

The Soul Menders
Susan Chernak McElroy

From on Chemo to on Camera
Kristine Kirsten

You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks
Howard J. Fuerst, M.D.

The Boy and the Billionaire
John Pekkanen

Hope
William M. Buchholz, M.D.