Routine medical check-ups often feel like formalities, reassuring us of our well-being. For Yllamira Perez Vasquez, 55, in Tampa, Florida, a routine...
It started with a small lump. Just three months later, Wanda Maldonado had a 6-pound tumor removed, saving her life. Wanda first felt the lump when she rolled over in bed...
Laura Mack was making ends meet by bartending after losing her banking job but she was eating all the wrong things at all the wrong times. She put 30 pounds on her athletic frame...
When Laura Ayala learned she had breast cancer, she only had two questions: Was she going to lose her hair? And when could she get back on the softball field? Laura, 51, had been playing the sport...
When Dana Calbi learned she had ovarian cancer, she immediately headed to one of the big academic hospitals in New York City. She was encouraged by the wealth of expertise it offered...
When Deyka Torres was told she had cancer, she was scared, really scared. Immediately, she had two thoughts, "Am I going to die from this? And if not, what do I have to do to get better? Deyka was 37 years old, a mother of three,...
The news was terrifying - Jane Martinez was 29 years old, the mother of a young son and she had cervical cancer. She was told the disease was severe, requiring a radical hysterectomy, and she was...
Standard chemotherapy fell short in treating Rebecka Hess’ ovarian cancer – the disease returned with a vengeance. Now, she’s receiving specialized medication through a clinical trial at...
Few people would consider a world-wide shutdown due to the COVID pandemic a good thing when it comes to a cancer diagnosis, but that’s exactly how Maureen Frazer sees it.
She was in the operating room, waiting for surgery to remove a cancerous lump from her breast when her doctor gently rubbed her lower leg a couple of times through the sheet. It was such a small...
Robert Romero didn’t follow his father and brother into body building, though they earned international fame for their efforts. Instead, the “black sheep” of the family, as he refers to himself, went to college, and became a runner...
Just as every cancer diagnosis is unique, so too, is the emotional response it triggers. For Karen Toy-
Dottino, she feared her treatment and disease would make her unable to work and in turn, she...
Mitch Cooperman just finished mounting new brackets for some shelves when he took a break to
explain how his life was upended about a year earlier. He had started cancer treatment and there...
Breast cancer was rampant in Mary Jane Bisanzo's family – eight loved ones including her mother, brother, maternal uncle, aunts and cousins had all been diagnosed with the disease. Their doctors suggested...
In the past, when Margaret Rovell saw friends or family members with cancer, she wondered what she would do if she ever developed the disease. Would she let nature take its course? “I’ve seen a lot of...
All cancer patients' journeys are different – what they go through and just as importantly, how they navigate the path. For Agatha Cuce, she realizes now she went into a bit of...
Don't give up. Ever. Ms. Soon Kim believes it, lives it and shares the philosophy with those she meets facing a hard time. For nearly three years, Ms. Kim had been suffering with random, unexplainable pain. She had...
Blanca Plaza is a religious woman and surviving three surgeries and chemotherapy that wore out her body and wearied her soul did nothing to shake her faith. In fact, she felt she had lived a good life...
Jorge Oropeza had a good life with his wife and four children. Well, maybe he worked a bit too much, but still, everyone was healthy and happy. Or so it appeared. Unbeknownst to Jorge, he had kidney cancer. It wasn't causing...
Darlene Smith knew something was wrong, probably something serious, but she didn't have medical insurance so she put off going to the doctor. Then fate intervened and took the timing right out of her hands...
At 76, Cecilia Pappas has been through a lot – intense, challenging times that might have made others give up. She didn't, and now she's living a fulfilling life even though she has ovarian cancer, a disease...
A cancer journey is never easy but Karen Riedel's was particularly arduous. Before things turned around, she was hospitalized for nearly two months and came close to dying. But Karen...
In the field of medicine, the most obvious diagnosis is often accurate – a sore throat is usually a respiratory illness, a mass on an ovary is likely to be ovarian cancer. But, as Suzanne Klausner found out, this...
First Millie Villarreal had digestive issues. She wasn't worried. Then she was diagnosed with cancer. Still not worried. She was told more than half her stomach needed to be removed. Again, not worried. My faith...
No one wants to hear the word cancer, but for Lucretia Montanaro, the diagnosis was horrific. She had already lost her sister, father and 31-year-old son to different types of cancer and facing it at 60 years old was...
They are a close, extended family of sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. They share vacations and holidays, burdens and joys. But they also have an expansive history of cancer: one sister had uterine cancer,...
Beth Ward-Bubar had a pain high in her abdomen that was progressively getting worse, especially after meals. One day just after finishing lunch, the searing jolt made her stop in her tracks. Clearly, it wasn't going away and...
Lindita Peposhi had a weird pain on the right side of her abdomen. It wasn't sharp like appendicitis and it wasn't debilitating, but she wanted it checked. A doctor prescribed an antibiotic...
Donna Dugan is the first to say she used to be a hypochondriac. Until she got breast cancer. Then she figured one of her biggest fears actually happened and she's still standing. Not only is she still standing, she's...
A few years ago, a routine mammogram conducted at another healthcare facility revealed early signs of cancer in Janet Capone's left breast. The New Jersey native and former flight attendant was very...