My Cancer

Back in March of 2006 when Donna was first diagnosed with breast cancer, we did what most people do when given news that they had a serious illness, we scoured the internet looking for information. Then I went one step further and started hunting blogs of breast cancer patients/survivors. I found several, read a lot, but didn’t link any for continued reading. That is until I found My Cancer. Found is not entirely accurate, to tell the truth I think someone pointed me to it, because I probably wouldn’t have found it because it was hosted on the NPR website.

It chronicles the trials and tribulations of being a cancer patient. Leroy Sievers had successfully beat colon cancer 4 years earlier, but as the disease sometimes does, it returned. This time it had metastasized to his brain and lungs. Leroy, life long journalist and producer (most recently for Ted Koppel’s Nightline) was asked to write a blog about his life living with cancer. The doctor’s gave him a prognosis of six months to live. My Cancer was full of insights into the “cancer world” and Leroy’s way with words touched a lot of people, he had a penchant for being able to eloquently express what other citizens of that world could not. Soon the comment section became a gathering place, sort of a town hall, for people who have or had been touched by cancer.

Sadly Leroy passed away a week ago. He wrote something in the blog right up until the very end. I’m going to miss him, because for every weekday for the past two and a half years, I have looked forward reading Leroy’s posts in the morning.

For the last couple days his wife has been posting to the blog. I’m not sure if she is looking to continue doing that forever, although for a while, it would be a nice continuance of the spirit of the blog to hear the caregiver’s side of the story.