Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor's Soul: Stories to Inspire, Support and Heal (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Mark Victor Hansen (Author), Mary Olsen Kelly (Author)
Key Phrases: little red bump, cancer support group, American Cancer Society, Glow Girls, Jonny Hawkins (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This addition to the popular Chicken Soup series should help anyone diagnosed with or undergoing treatment for breast cancer, as well as their close friends and family members. Divided into categories such as love, healing, challenge and courage, the wide-ranging first-person accounts set a positive but realistic tone. Donna St. Jean Conti describes how a saleswoman, seeing Conti's scar from a mastectomy, whispered that she had found a lump in her breast and asked her for advice on what to do. Beverly Vote writes about the difficult problem of holding on to her sense of herself as a woman after undergoing a mastectomy and of how her husband's devotion helped her. In the face of her beloved sister Meemee's diagnosis, Barbara Curtis dealt with her fears by cooking and freezing healing foods for Meemee during her treatment (Curtis shares a recipe for Chemo Popsicles to fight nausea). Jennie Nash details how difficult it was to handle the worry about who would raise her children if she died. The editors touch all bases by including a useful account of a male breast cancer survivor. B&w drawings. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Your support group in a book, filled with boundless strength and profound hope - until the fight is won.

Along with the shock, fear and loss many women face upon a breast cancer diagnosis comes unexpected strength, wisdom, and strong networks of sharing, support and healing. In Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor's Soul, survivors and their family members talk openly about how difficult their fight with breast cancer has been and how they made it through the dark times with a belief in a higher power and the support of those closest to them.

Find strength in the encouraging stories of how family members confront their fears and show genuine affection for one another through gestures such as a granddaughter cutting the hair off of all her dolls so that they will look more like her grandma, who is bald from chemotherapy, and the gentle touch of a three-year-old son on his mother's back giving comfort to his sick mommy, and a husband who shows his wife the depth of his love during a weekend getaway after she heals from a total mastectomy.
Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivors Soul will show you the beautiful side of the human spirit and spark the optimism sometimes lost in the mist of an illness. It is for everyone with breast cancer and everyone who loves someone touched by the disease.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: HCI; 2 edition (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0757305210
• ISBN-13: 978-0757305214
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #134,880 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stories of love, families, and laughter, December 16, 2006

By	Reader Views "www.readerviews.com" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (11/06)

I started reading the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series several years ago and have always been amazed and inspired at the wonderful stories in them. "Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor's Soul" does not disappoint. Right after I agreed to review this book I had my annual physical, which included a breast exam. The doctor found nine lumps in my breasts and scheduled me for a mammogram and sonogram. This book arrived on the day that I had the tests. I began reading it not knowing what the tests were going to turn up and immediately found myself in awe of the people that faced this disease, some winning, some not, but all discovering that the most important thing in life is to live each day as if it were your last--simple advice, yet so hard to follow when we are caught up in the everyday problems and rat-race in our lives.

The pages of "Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor's Soul" are full of stories about love, families, and laughter and the incredible support that breast cancer survivors give each other. The book is perfect for a person diagnosed with breast cancer and survivors of breast cancer and their families and friends. Many of the survivors look back on their experience with cancer as a gift because they learned what is truly important in life during their treatment and recovery time. Oftentimes, we feel so helpless when a loved one is facing tough times and there are also many wonderful suggestions for things that can be done to help.

I was also amazed at the bond that forms between women, and more increasingly men, who have breast cancer. They join support groups, educate each other about treatment and rally around people who are trying to make it through treatment and recovery. They do not just move on when they reach the five year cancer free mark, but wear their pink ribbons with pride and do their utmost to support others. The people in this book are true heroes, who have met one of life's toughest challenges and instead of giving up in despair learned that life is worth living minute by minute.

I highly recommend this book for people with breast cancer, survivors and their family members. After reading it I am making a personal goal of mine to participate in the 60 mile walk for Breast Cancer Research. That will make the marathon that I completed a few years ago seem like child's play, but if these people can survive this disease with so much courage, then a 60 mile walk will be nothing. I received the results of my mammogram and sonogram and found out that I have cystic breast disease and not breast cancer. After experiencing those few days of uncertainty, I am in even more awe of the powerful survivors' spirit in "Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor's Soul."

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Support Group Between Two Covers, January 14, 2007

By	Mary Olsen Kelly "Survive and Thrive" (Honolulu, HI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As the co-author of this book, I have to thank the amazing story contributors who wrote deep and moving stories about their journey through breast cancer in order to help those who have been newly diagnosed, their families and friends. This book would not have been possible without their courage, strength, and humor. Yes, there are a lot of funny stories in here too. It was an honor to work with such talented and generous women survivors (and one man) who are all surviving and thriving. This book is inspiring, it gives you a lift and lets you know that as you go through the often scary treatments for breast cancer, you are not alone.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivors Soul, January 4, 2007

By	A. T. Brunozzi "Angelique" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wonderful! Inspirational! I love all the Chicken Soup Books!