Patient Stories

2019 Hero of Hope Patient Award winner Kirstin Arbon speaks about her experience of being treated for cancer while pregnant, and offers advice to survivors and their loved ones.

After getting tested for genetic abnormalities, Brandi Bryant learned she had the ALK genetic mutation, which increases the risk for lung cancer. This information resulted in important changes in her treatment and led her to become an advocate for genetic testing, especially among minority communities.

Jon Grossman shares his powerful story of learning he inherited the genetic mutation that caused his mother’s stomach cancer, and the drastic steps he took to ensure he will not have that cancer.

Samantha Anderson refused to give up when her triple-negative breast cancer returned. Trusting her oncologist, she enrolled in the clinical trial with Tecentriq (atezolizumab) that led to the approval of the first immunotherapy for this type of breast cancer.

Enjoy Lillie Shockney’s sense of humor as you read her personal story of how working as a nurse and facing her own breast cancer diagnosis shaped her life and her lifelong work as a breast cancer educator and advocate.

When the emergency department (better known as ER) doctor and the clinical nurse specialist came in and asked, “Is there anyone with you?” I knew what was to follow wasn’t good. Like many other women, had made excuses for the discomfort, bloating, and weight gain I was experiencing in October 2016, thinking it was just something I had eaten, or maybe my metabolism, menopause, or inactivity.

A seemingly ordinary case of appendicitis uncovers a very rare cancer. Fred McKitrick details how he grappled with the reality of a very “unreal” situation.