CONFRONTING CANCER

"When the treatment ends, you rejoice, but it is also very scary. You think, What will protect me now?"

--Ellen Morgan (breast cancer, ten-year survivor)

"Ten years after the treatment ended I celebrated by getting stars tattooed on top of the ugly green radiation spots. The funny thing is, the tattoos put the whole experience to rest. Now I hardly remember I had cancer."

--Ellen Morgan (breast cancer, ten-year survivor)

"I love to go to the beach, because that's where I find my peace. When I see the gulls and cranes, I know there is a God."

--Evi Wallace (breast cancer)

"Our illnesses made us even more aware that the real challenge of life is to appreciate and live the present moment as fully as possible."

--Terry Croteau (breast cancer)
--Gerry Croteau (prostate cancer)

"If somebody asks me how to keep going, I tell them to trust in God, and He will make things right."

--Hattie Wren (bladder cancer, lymphoma)

--By Meredith Pickering, for Lucky (bone cancer)

"I believe I have been kept alive for a reason and I want to give back...My mission now is to help empower others, so they too can learn to harness their own inner skills and begin to heal."

--Margie Levine (longest known cancer-free survivor of asbestos cancer, author of Surviving Cancer, Random House, 2001)