Stand Up To Cancer

Desiree Pardi

Pardi, who faced cancer the first time at 31 and was diagnosed with a fatal recurrence of the disease in 2008, was a palliative care doctor; she spent her career treating patients who were near death, even as she fought for her own life. She passed away at the age of 41. "She preached the gentle gospel of her profession, persuading patients to confront their illnesses and get their affairs in order and, above all, enduring that their last weeks were not spent in unbearable pain," the article says.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/health/04doctor.html?pagewanted=3&ref=homepage&src=me

Barbara Bates Smith

In 2001, Smith played the role of a cancer patient in the play "Wit"; during production, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, now in remission. This weekend Smith will debut her one-woman show about the experience in Asheville, NC, called "The C-Word: A Life-Meets-Art Cancer Story." The play is based around Smith's journal entries and other writings from the time, and Smith hopes it will make people think about issues like how best to communicate with a cancer patient. "I don't think I am telling anybody anything new about cancer," Smith says. "But I am giving one cancer patient's perspective."
http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100404/LIVING/304040033/1311/ADVERTISING

Jeff Jacobson

After recovering from lymphoma and chemotherapy in 2005, Jacobson, a 63-year-old photographer, began a new project called "The Last Roll." He used the last of his Kodachrome 200 - a now defunct film that had been his favorite for two decades - to document his recovery. "Many photojournalists think that they are documenting some sort of objective reality that exists in front of the camera," he says. "Any good photojournalist or documentary photographer acknowledges that what they are documenting is their perception of that reality."
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/showcase-147/

Ginger Hamm

In this article, Hamm, a former kindergarten teacher diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, shares her story. No stranger to the disease - her son passed away from rhabdomyosarcoma in 1974 - Hamm now volunteers at the hospital where she was treated eight years ago. "I wanted to give back," she says. She also urges women to stay on top of their annual mammograms: "You have to do everything to keep yourself safe. We are never promised tomorrow."
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/apr/05/survivor-finds-teachable-moment-cancer/

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