Marla's Personal Story as a Cancer Survivor

Nearly five years ago I was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer. My prognosis was a 20 percent chance of surviving five years without a recurrence.

Three months ago, when I visited my oncologist for my regular quarterly (yes, quarterly) checkup, we talked about my survivorship. He admitted he thought there was no way that I would make it this long. "But," I replied, "Don't you remember when you thought the spots on the liver CT scan were cancer, and told me the prognosis was very dim if they were, my response was, 'Well, then they are not cancer,'?" And they weren't. Now I will add to that. I am not going to recur. I've done this once and I choose not to do it again." As we talked, this young man of medicine, who has taken me through some the scariest parts of my life, looked at me and said, "If I ever doubted that there is a mind-body connection, you have changed that doubt to positive belief that it exists." We are survivors because we choose to be; we may have to do battle from time to time, but we will win, and our efforts to support those who are searching for cures, vaccines and reasons for the dreaded C word are ultimately more successful because our passion for life and the betterment of it is so great.

Marla in California, USA
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