quotations about cancer
I decided right then and there that no matter what cancer did to me I would continue to move. Movement was what the physical body was designed to do; it was how it coped and functioned. Movement was vitality. It was life. I would move. Always. No matter what. Until my last breath, I would move.
EDIE LITTLEFIELD SUNDBY
The Mission Walker
Cancer can touch you, but not your soul; neither your thoughts, nor your heart.
VIKRMN
Guru with Guitar
You beat cancer by continuing to live. By refusing to be just a cancer patient.
STUART SCOTT
Every Day I Fight
Sickness usually dominates the thoughts of a patient with cancer, but too much preoccupation with illness can have a destructive effect on the mind, and knowing what can happen frequently becomes self-fulfilling. Today, people who are ill will spend hours surfing the internet to find out all they can about their illness -- but this isn't always a good thing.
JENNIFER WORTH
In the Midst of Life
Cancer victims who don't accept their fate, who don't learn to live with it, will only destroy what little time they have left.
INGRID BERGMAN
McCall's, 1982
Every patient reacts a little differently, both biologically and psychologically. The only constant in cancer is inconstancy; the only certainty is a future of uncertainty, a truism for all of modern life but one made vivid by life-threatening illness.
JONATHAN ALTER
"Living with Cancer in America", Newsweek, Apr. 8, 2007
Dear Cancer, thank you for making me stop and listen and remember what's truly important. You can go now.
ANONYMOUS
Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.
JIM VALVANO
speech at ESPY Awards at Madison Square Garden, ESPN, March 7, 1993
What is cancer, he thought to himself, if not a terrorist attack from above? What is it that God is doing, if not terrorizing us in protest against ... something. Something so lofty and transcendental that it is beyond our grasp?
ETGAR KERET
The Nimrod Flipout
I guess most of us would rather not discuss cancer because we are all afraid we might be told we have it. It's hard for people to even say the word, and that's the first obstacle you have to overcome when you are diagnosed with the disease. I think once you understand a little more about it ... I don't mean it gets any easier ... but I think you give it more in-depth thought about how you're going to deal with it.
ARNOLD PALMER
interview, 2001
Cancer is a word, not a sentence.
ROBERT BUCKMAN
Cancer is a Word, Not a Sentence
Cancer is not a single disease, and it almost certainly can't ever be addressed with a single magical potion. It has to be approached with a variety of protocols. So when well-meaning people--or, more infuriatingly, certain cancer organizations that ought to know better--talk about finding "the cure" for "this disease", it's a good bet that they are talking a lot of nonsense.
MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles
The failure to think positively can weigh on a cancer patient like a second disease.
BARBARA EHRENREICH
Bright-Sided
Baby's got cancer, looking for the answer
She's got cancer, someone romance her
She was one of a kind
THE BRONX
"White Tar"
My reaction on being told that I had cancer was not what I might have expected. I was relieved to finally know what I had to deal with and calm at the possibility of fading away. It seemed to me I had already lived a full life, like a well-plotted novel that reaches a satisfactory conclusion. I had known deep friendship, true love, loss, and sorrow. I had felt at one with nature and at home in the city. And, critically, I had discovered both a creative capacity within myself and inner discipline to put it to work. I had become a whole person.
PETER KORN
Why We Make Things and Why It Matters
That's the thing about cancer. They call it the fight, as if the stronger ones win and the weaker ones lose, but that's not what cancer is at all. Cancer isn't one of the players in the game. Cancer is the game. It doesn't matter how much endurance you have. It doesn't matter how much you've practiced. Cancer is the be-all and end-all of the sport, and the only thing you can do is show up to the game with your jersey on. Because you never know ... you might be forced to sit the bench for the entire game. You may not even be given the chance to compete.
COLLEEN HOOVER
November 9
The truth is that you can be angry and scared and happy and grateful and tired and fed up at the same time. I guess that's the gift of cancer.
MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles
You can be a victim of cancer, or a survivor of cancer. It's a mindset.
DAVE PELZER
attributed, Being Single, with Cancer
Time is shortening, but every day that I challenge this cancer and survive is a victory for me, and I am thankful for it.
INGRID BERGMAN
McCall's, 1982
Staying positive and seeing good things ahead of you is really important to me and for anyone who's going through cancer or any difficult illness.
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
interview, Hello Magazine, March 18, 2019