Amazon.com
Cancer doesn't always kill, but it does change lives irrevocably. Anne Bancroft narrates this 55-minute tape in which cancer patients and professionals discuss the pervasive disease that confounds researchers even as it lays claim to the well-being and/or lives of an inordinate number of people. Many of the survivors--identified by name, type of cancer, and year(s) of occurrence--have fought the disease more than once, and they describe their reactions and recovery. A breast cancer survivor reads from her book of poetry about her experiences, a cardiologist describes the turnabout he faced when he spotted a metastasis on his own x-ray, and the sister of a girl who endured leukemia talks about her jealousy of the attention and gifts her sister received. Interspersed are jokes performed for a cancer survivor audience by a comedian who battled osteosarcoma, and the thoughts of various oncologists, nurses, chaplains, and educators about what support patients need from them. The overriding theme is acceptance and hope, never more poignant than in the story of a young ovarian cancer patient who wound up delivering a baby against all odds.
--Kimberly Heinrichs
