It’s been a great week getting out and meeting other survivors! Last Saturday, I was a survivor speaker at the Allendale, NJ, Relay for Life. On Tuesday evening I gave the keynote talk at the Celebration of Life event at Lourdes Regional Cancer Center in Binghamton, NY.
Jody, an 11 month survivor, and I met at Relay. Jody attended her first Relay for Life with her entire family (including her sister-in-law whose help was indispensable while Jody was in treatment.) We hit it off immediately as we talked, hugged and exchanged emails. My fellow survivor speaker Dan had an amazing story of multiple cancers. We cut the ribbon together to begin the Relay and walked arm in arm to lead the other survivors around the track.
Many blessings to Jody and Dan, who is expecting his first grandchild at the end of this month!
At the Lourdes Celebration of Life event, I met Ike, Jacquie, Karen, Mel and so many other wonderful people. One woman stopped by to talk as I was signing books to share that she was 90 years old and still going strong despite cancer. Another woman talked about being diagnosed with thyroid cancer just a month before her teenage son was also diagnosed with thyroid cancer. A third woman and her husband spoke with me about TRAM flaps and tamoxifen (something I know a bit about personally.) One man told me about his prostate cancer and how he now chops wood to keep active. Another man was thrilled to tell me he is celebrating eight years as a survivor!
I truly love being with other survivors. It’s a joy that never gets old. In fact, I’m so inspired I’m thinking about creating a webinar or e-course so we can spend some time together too! This is just in the planning stages and I could use your help. What topics would you like to talk with me about? How do you think I could best serve you? Would you be interested in a course at all?
Shoot me back an email if you have ideas (debbie@wherewegonow.com.)
Thanks so much for your input and I look forward to hearing from you!!
Survival > Existence,
Debbie
Where We Go Now 