Family Members

Sometimes we have to deal with the impossible. Vicki Bunke’s daughter, Grace, died from osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, a day before her 15th birthday. This is a heartbreaking story of how Vicki honored her daughter’s life.

Shanea Irierose Drown shares her personal story of overcoming expectations, rising to the challenge, and seeing people for who they really are, not what their dubious reputations may lead us to believe.

Douglas Herman, who lives with stage IV prostate cancer, highlights the strength that love provides, noting that giving and receiving love are both powerful in their own way.

Mark DeLong’s son Peter was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, at age 14, and died when he was just 16. Mark uses advocacy to raise funds for cancer research in Peter’s memory.

Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen, shares her inspiring story of how she started one of the most impressive cancer foundations in the country by keeping a promise she made to her older sister, Suzy.

When she was 34 with a 6-year-old daughter, Sara Olsher was told she had breast cancer. What followed was a year and a half of treatment and connecting with her daughter in unique ways.

Sara Olsher was diagnosed with breast cancer at 34 years old. Explaining her diagnosis to her 6-year-old daughter and parenting through her treatment proved to be difficult. To help families like hers, Sara founded Mighty + Bright, which provides resources for families going through hard times, and wrote and illustrated the children’s book, “Someone I Love Has Cancer.”

Speech-language pathologist Stacey Brill, MS, CCC-SLP, shares her journey by her mom’s side as she battled cancer, and the subsequent care and services she had provided to many patients with cancer, in her mom’s memory.

Kimberley Norris relates her experience as a bedside advocate for her husband, Rick, after his esophageal cancer diagnosis, introducing her discussion of the challenges of advocating for a hospitalized patient with cancer.