Renewal tells true stories of men and women in a cancer support group who choose to influence their fate. Its practical advice for people with cancer and their families: (1)Guides healing regardless of diagnosis or treatment, (2)Deals with person-disease interplay and how to work with your physicians, (3)Explains self help tools to improve health and well being. Despite sophisticated treatment and medical attention many people with cancer feel they have been given a death sentence. There is a choice, there is another path for you to choose. The quickest way to finding a new path is to meet people who already have traveled it. Such an alternate path helps a person decide what their journey of discovery will be. This book advocates personal renewal through education, self-determination, persistence, and mutual support. The cancer support group that named itself Renewal began weekly meetings in 1982. Those in the group speak through personal stories and want to share their experiences with you. Renewal includes stories from workers in specialized fields who share their knowledge as their gift. It contains stories of physicians when they become sick and a chapter of opinions and conclusions from medical experts working in this field. Another chapter tells how the physician founder grew in his awareness to the point of writing this book. Members in the Renewal group make statements such as, My gift from cancer was finding out how strong I am, and, I learned the value of living and the value of dying, and, The specialist came in the first visit and said, 'I presume you are here because you want to live.' I realized the doctors would only do the surgeries and give the drugs. I had to decide if I wanted to live. A cancer surgeon who recently read Renewal praised it as, ...a substantial contribution and has opened my mind...all people treating cancer should read it. Another surgeon comment said, A wonderful book...truly inspiring...I am in awe...I could easily write an essay on what I learned and experienced reading your masterpiece.
