Cancer is a monster. Aside from cancer itself, a patient’s biggest enemy is fear. Fear paralyzes us. It affects our thinking, decisions, actions, and well-being. For all my family and friends who know me and helped support me through my diagnosis and treatment, they will tell you I appeared like a rock, strong and determined to get through the treatments, to beat cancer’s ass, and to come out stronger.

I confess, internally I was a mess. I had just enough strength to get through each day. I was constantly afraid that cancer was going to kill me, and I didn’t want to die. I was at the end of my chemo treatments when my internist Dr. Mark, seeing the fear behind my eyes, called me to task, “Sally, you look like hell; relax, you’re not going to die.”

It was a moment of reassurance that I needed. At that point, I let go of the fear and was finally able to focus on getting better. I was healthy again, and I would survive. I could breathe again.

Sally was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. Today, Sally is cancer-free, a life coach and patient advocate for cancer patients, family, and the medical community. She walks and talks cancer everyday with newly diagnosed friends, family, and strangers as patients and, sometimes, as victims of this dreadful disease. 

She works as their advocate to help them through the paralyzing fear that often accompanies those words: “You have cancer.” This book is Sally’s story and her coaching advise to cancer patients and their families and caregivers.