How Cancer Helped Me Let Go of Fear and Make Deep Connections

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Facing cancer, one woman chooses to live fully — which leads to surprising joys, relationships…and even a novel

—

I am a two-time breast cancer survivor, but my story is not really about cancer and its trials. It’s about how cancer taught me that humor, nature, exercise and relationships with both family and “found family” helped me heal and learn to stop living in fear. The strategies that saw me through breast cancer also led me to become a debut novelist at age 71, in better physical shape than when I was fifteen years ago, and more at peace

My first cancer diagnosis hit like a freight train. I was 55 years old, in otherwise good health, and working more than full-time as communications director for a statewide elected official and the sprawling state agency he oversaw. In an instant, everything took a backseat to cancer. There were two surgeries, three months of chemotherapy, seven weeks of daily radiation treatments, and then hormone therapy prescribed for five years. Time went by in a blur.

Cancer itself didn’t shock me. I had no thoughts of, “Why me?” Seriously, why not me? Why was I