THE EXPERIENCE OF LIVING WITH CANCER

TOUCHSTONE THURSDAYS

by Veteran Cancer Fighter Janice Thorup

Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you knew you must die tomorrow.

Shakers, famous for their woodworking and simple lifestyle, took this bit of philosophy and made of their lives works of simple beauty.

The experience of living with cancer has provided me with a similar focus. What work I do must be done for the sake of the work itself. I may not live to see its outcomes. I plant a small garden knowing that I may not live to see the harvest and the act thereby takes on a greater significance—it becomes an act of worship, a gift to the earth, to those who will come after me. And the gift is returned to me in the pleasure I take in actions that are disassociated from their results. I bask in the action itself, in the moment at hand, without wandering into that unclear domain of the future.

In 1995 Janice was diagnosed with Chronic Mylegenous Leukemia and given less than a year to live. Proving cancer wrong on a daily basis, Janice is happily married, a proud mother and grandmother enjoying the good life in Colorado.

Click Here to Read Janice Thorup’s Short Story The Blast Cells

www.thewhyfoundation.org

CANCER IS NOT ON MY RADAR ANYMORE: A STORY OF SURVIVAL

TOUCHSTONE THURSDAYS

by Veteran Cancer Fighter Janice Thorup

Cancer is not on my radar anymore. Leukemia plays its song in the background of my life, coming to the foreground just twice a year for testing. And while I’ve fallen in and out of remission, for the past five years I’ve been fine and the thought of leukemia has faded.

I still find myself telling new friends that I have leukemia because it was so life-defining for me. For years, it was the all consuming fact of my life: in order to know me, you have to know that I have been dancing with leukemia for 18 years.

Even though my disease is well managed (with a drug that has only minimal side effects), even though my doctor has said that I will most likely not die from leukemia, I retain the sense of a limited lifespan. I don’t feel the reasonable expectation of a future that others have. But this is largely a good thing. I understand the preciousness of life, the gift of life itself—waking to a cool breeze on a summer morning, watching the earth awaken from the lifeless forms of winter into the splendor of spring, drinking a cold glass of water or a warm cup of coffee. These smallest of sensory pleasures, not measured in money or time, have become enough for me.  I am mostly content with what life brings to me.

And there’s more: I have faced Death—have lived for a time thinking that I would die. I have faced Fear and learned about Acceptance. I would not trade these lessons for any amount of good health.

In 1995 Janice was diagnosed with Chronic Mylegenous Leukemia and given less than a year to live. Proving cancer wrong on a daily basis, Janice is happily married, a proud mother and grandmother enjoying the good life in Colorado.

Click Here to Read Janice Thorup’s Short Story The Blast Cells

www.thewhyfoundation.org