"Our greatest joy comes not in falling, but in rising every time we fall."
– Author unknown
"My doctor is a wonderful man. He gave a guy six months to live. The fellow couldn't pay his bill, so he gave him another six months"
– Henny Youngman
"What is the difference between benign and malignant?
About $100,000 and two years."
We are a non-profit organization dedicated to college age people with cancer. In order to go through such a difficult situation one must learn to never lose their sense of humor. That is why I am writing a book, The Lighter Side of Cancer, a book which includes funny stories involving cancer patients, their family and medical staff, success stories, and famous people that have overcome cancer.Proceeds from the book will go toward a non-profit organization, "Cancer for College," which provides college scholar-ships to current and former cancer patients.
This web page is a small sampling of the book currently being written. If you have any stories or information that can add to the success of the book, it would be greatly appreciated. Your efforts will help other cancer patients set goals for a bright, healthy future. During such difficult times we must never lose our ability to laugh and enjoy life. Cancer steals many things, our hair, energy, and appetite, but it must never steal the greatest joy in life: laughter.
Please submit your stories in the contact us section of the website or mail them to Cancer for College.
Thank you.
Jack Of All Prostheses
When I volunteered as a counselor for Camp Good Times, a summer camp for children with cancer, I was glad to see the kids still enjoyed their lives with the same energy and mischievousness as healthy children.
One story that is most vivid in my memory is of a camper from Mexico, Jose, 12, (names have been changed) who did not speak a word of English. Jose had a prosthesis for his left leg, which had been removed just below the knee due to his battle with bone cancer. Myself, another counselor and ten boys between the ages of 12 and 15 – all cancer or former cancer patients – entered our cabin for the first time. To our dismay, we found several insects crawling inside. Everyone looked around for something to squash the spiders and bugs with, but there was nothing to be found. Suddenly, Jose nonchalantly removed his leg, handed it to me, and pointed to the spiders. I grabbed his leg and began clearing the ceiling of bugs and cob-webs as the rest of the cabin members burst into laughter.
As the week progressed, Jose's prosthesis was used as a baseball bat, a basketball shot blocker and most importantly, it continued as the best insect repellent in the entire camp. Although Jose could not speak English, he created an environment filled with humor and laughter from an object most people would find devastating.
That single moment, when Jose handed me his leg, formed a bond between us all in that cabin that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
– Craig Pollard
Voo Doo Injection
I had been receiving monthly gamma globulin infusions for years at the local cancer center to bolster my immunity in my struggle with leukemia. During those years I was attended by quite a few different nurses, whose IV catheter injection techniques varied from excellent to something bordering on sadistic.
I have pretty good veins in my arms – they're visible and they bulge a bit – so they aren't hard to hit. But there was one nurse (I'll call her Betty) who consistently had problems prepping me for the IV. It would take her two, sometimes three, tries before the catheter was in and flowing properly. It was a monthly ordeal that we both dreaded. I usually kept the occasion light by joking about it, but during one particularly painful session I'd had enough and blurted out, "Betty, I'm going to get you a voodoo doll and some pins so you can practice poking the doll instead of me." We joked about that and soon forgot it.
A few months later, my wife Gloria and I took two of our grandsons to a resort near Ocho Rios, Jamaica, for some snorkeling in the warm Caribbean. Gloria, inveterate shopper that she is, volunteered to go into the town of Ocho Rios in search of a voodoo doll for Betty. Gloria eventually found a little Jamaican rag doll which, with some imagination, could pass. When we got the doll home we stitched, with red thread, some branching lines on its bare arms to rep-resent veins. Then along with a package of dressmaker pins, we gift-wrapped the doll to be presented to Betty on my next infusion appointment.
Betty received her gift with grace and good humor, and the occasion enlivened the entire ward that day.
– Dick Clifford
Roller Wig
Knott's Berry Farm has always been a place of great memories for me, both as a child and as an adult. Following six grueling months of chemotherapy, my girl-friend (now my wife) thought it would be a good idea to take me somewhere fun where I could forget about my cancer. She chose Knott's Berry Farm.
At the time, I had lost all of my hair and was wearing a hair piece. The first ride we ventured upon was Montezuma's Revenge. This is a roller coaster that makes a complete revolution forwards and backwards somewhere around 60 miles per hour. As we buckled our-selves into the seats, I became a bit nervous watching the expressions of those departing from the ride that I was about to try. The roller coaster burst into its first forward revolution, and I felt the g-forces pushing me against the seat.
As we continued, the wind blew fiercely through my hair piece – attached to my bald head only by double-sided tape. On the backward revolution, I felt my entire hair piece peeling off! I grabbed at my head, visualizing my hair piece flying into the wind like a parachute. As the ride continued, I struggled to hold onto the hand rails and my hair piece at the same time. It became such a challenge that I began to laugh as the ride and the wind continued their assault. When at last we disembarked, I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt. My girlfriend began to laugh as well. "I didn't think you would have this much fun," she said. When I told her what happened, she replied, "I think I would be crying if you weren't laughing."
I told her that I wasn't sure if I would be crying or laughing if my hair piece had become a mini-parachute, but I'm glad I'll never know.
– Craig Pollard
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