Stand Up To Cancer

I have spent the last few weeks reading the outpouring of stories that have been coming in to Stand Up To Cancer. We've received e-mails from survivors, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, spouses, friends all relaying the very profound and very personal ways that cancer has touched their lives.

In difficult times, like those that accompany a cancer diagnosis, it is sometimes necessary to shelter yourself from the outside world. When my mother was battling breast cancer, it was almost like we had to close the experience to a very small group of family and friends. It was our way of keeping what felt like a very out of control experience contained to our own little world that was "functional."

But I discovered that when I started opening up the little bubble I had experienced cancer in and started sharing my story, everybody had a story. Hearing these stories allowed me to feel like I wasn't the only one. That other people powered through hardships and won. A story about their own mother with breast cancer, or their father with prostate cancer, or their 30 year old friend with melanoma, or their wife who had passed away just last year, or their own battle with breast cancer.

We have been driven through this whole project by the notion that while each cancer story is personal and distinct, they are all tied together by a common thread. We are all one degree of separation from this disease. Whether we realize it or not, each and every one of us has a story of how cancer has profoundly touched our lives.

As I started to dive into the stories that have been posted on our application on Facebook, "The Stand," I found that I couldn't simply look for one powerful example... it wasn't just "the one" story that made me teary. It was reading the litany of stories, one after another that really affected me. Stories of mothers from Kansas City, and fathers from Dallas, sisters, brothers, children, spouses and friends, all sharing their unique but connected stories. Experiencing the tapestry of story, from all over the country, hit it home for me again just how ubiquitous this disease is.

So we've decided to make these stories a part of our show. Not just one story, but many read in succession. A selection of stories from The Stand will be read live by A- List Celebrities on the September 5th telecast (ABC, CBS, and NBC, 8 p.m. EST.). Whether you are a survivor, in treatment, newly-diagnosed, touched by cancer or in the fight (doctors, oncology nurses, advocates) share your story here. Post your cancer story to The Stand.

-- Julia