Telling Our Stories: The Importance of Personal Cancer Blogs
By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com senior editor
Listening to NPR in the car yesterday morning, I was thrilled to hear, for the first time in a long time, the voice of of an old friend. Except this is a friend I've never met. I know Leroy Sievers solely through his blog, My Cancer, on the NPR website. Maybe you know him too?
A 25-year veteran of network news, Sievers started blogging when he was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. Since then, he's doggedly documented, with a combination of ascerbic humor and poignancy, his battle with recurrent colorectal cancer. In the process, he's developed an international following so passionate that his friend Ted Koppel made a documentary (airing May 6th) about the phenomenon.
Sievers touched a nerve, no doubt about it, but he's by no means the only one. There are many brave souls in the blogosphere who've taken the substantial risk of "outing themselves" as cancer patients in order to tell their stories and, hopefully, help others.
In heartfelt tribute to all the cancer warriors out there, I thought I'd list, in no particular order, my favorite personal cancer blogs:
- Jacki Donaldson's My Breast Cancer Blog
- Joel Nowak's Advanced Prostate Cancer
- John Resner's Surviving Oral Cancer
- Susan Reynold's Boobs on Ice
- Kim, aka Lawmom's The Merits of the Case
- Deb, aka Debutaunt's blog about life as a single mom with acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Take a peek, you might just meet a new friend.
And please, let us know which cancer blogs you read, so we can continue to build our list -- and an even bigger network of friends.
Image from Flickr user mdkiteman used under the Creative Commons attribution license.
I created a blog for my wife (folicular lymphoma) and wonder how to draw more readers to the site. www.itsjoansjourney.blogspot.com If anyone knows anything that might help.
Wonderful blogger and cancer expert Jeanne Sather, author of the Assertive Cancer Patient blog mentioned above, forwarded me a recommendation for another great cancer blog: http://cheekylibrarian.blogspot.com/ This is written by witty Teresa Hartman, who details her battle with adenoid cystic carcinoma (discovered in her cheek, hence the clever name). Enjoy and share more links, please!
I have found that blogging helps me through my illness and has given me the opportunity to help others along the way. Oral Cancer is not easy. No caner is, but when you have others to listen and help, those who have been through it, some how it just makes it easier. I read Leroy's Blog all the time. He is one who inspires me. I'm finding so many of us online that just need to connect. Thank you for helping. Come visit my blog if you have time. It's not all about cancer, I try to keep it real and not a medicinal. There is an entire section dedicated to my journey, "The Cancer Chronicles." Cancer is only a small part of my life. My goal is to show that life can be pretty normal if you don't let the cancer control you! Peace Brian Blog: http://beyondtheglassdoor.blogspot.com/