Story of Inspiration

"I was at work when my doctor called me on my cell phone.  I teach Deaf students, and I normally wouldn't answer the phone at school, but I happened to be on a spare.  She told me that she thought I had Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia which is a rare blood cancer, and when I heard that word, it really stopped me in my tracks.  You hear the word cancer, and the first thing you think is that you might not live much longer. I didn't know what to think, but I knew that I wasn't going to let it take over [...]

Michael and his wife look to inspire all those with a cancer diagnosis.  Their production, a series of six videos, says "We CANcer-vive".

Raffela urges us to Choose Hope, and reminds us that we can each make a difference.

After her difficult journey through and beyond a stem cell transplant, Lucie writes "one must sustain belief in oneself ... the body and the mind make up a wonderful machine ... listening to them can be most instructive".

Learning from a life "punctuated by a cascade of medical events", Carol advises that it is important to be a partner with your doctor. "It's not just about finding the right medicine; it's also about sustaining positive attitudes", she writes.

As Murray tells it, his WM "is fascinating, time-consuming and important to me, but, like all hobbies, should not become an obsession".

Stu relates his 18-year-and-counting journey with WM, and concludes: "Nothing is going to get in my way of striking things off my 'bucket list'".

Ron's story, in slides, takes him through several treatments to a clinical trial that finally provided a measure of long-term success.