Category Cancer Patient Stories

“Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.” It’s been 10-year-old Grady’s mantra for the past three years. In the summer of 2018, Grady’s family noticed he was having trouble hearing. He’d complain that empty restaurants were too noisy and suddenly…

“I think this was supposed to happen to me so I could find my true self and inspire other people.” It’s a heavy statement coming from a 12-year-old, but Mateo isn’t your average kid. In 2016, when the Duxbury, Mass.,…

Welcoming a baby into the world for the first time is stressful under the best circumstances. And a global pandemic, plus cancer treatment, doesn’t make for ideal conditions. But that’s where Tom Budreau found himself in summer 2020, while he…

Doug Fox was driving back from a client meeting with his coworkers when he received the gut-wrenching call from his wife. He remembers everything going quiet around him. He didn’t want to tell his colleagues—he wasn’t ready yet. “Reality changed…

In March 2020, Judy Fine-Edelstein, MD, chief of Neurology at Cambridge Health Alliance, was working long hours caring for patients. Focused on her job, Judy dismissed her cough and aches as stress. When she could ignore her symptoms no longer, she got a blood test. The results were not good. Judy’s…

Weeks prior to 19-year-old Jillian’s high school graduation, she had been experiencing fatigue and noticed a few lumps in her neck. She didn’t think much of them, but after encouragement from her family, she went to the doctor and soon…