Ch 1 – Cancer Conquerors Search

Cancer Conquerors
Is a cancer conqueror the same thing as a cancer survivor? Perhaps.
First, how do we define survivor?
Macmillan Cancer Support defines a cancer survivor as someone who is "living with or beyond cancer", namely someone who:
• has completed initial cancer management and has no apparent evidence of active disease;
• is living with progressive disease and may be receiving cancer treatment, but is not in the terminal phases of illness; or
• has had cancer in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_survivor

This definition is specific & covers a broad range of cancer patients, but it does not capture the spirit of the cancer conqueror. Can a cancer survivor & a cancer conqueror be one & the same? Yes, but not every survivor is a cancer conqueror. Not every cancer conqueror will be a cancer survivor. That is the ultimate hope, but it is not the ultimate issue at stake.

I have wanted to use the term Cancer Conqueror in “My Story” & my blogs but could not decide how to give you a short definition of who or what a Cancer Conqueror is. I hope this will help you understand the core beliefs of a Cancer Conqueror that are the basis of his or her mindset, which results in specific actions & responses. This involves body, mind & spirit. It’s so exciting to learn how you can become a Cancer Conqueror &, in the process, may even cure it! How exciting is that? I hope you benefit from the journeys as much as I have.

When you read these chapter summaries & find out what a Cancer Conqueror is, I would say I don’t remember meeting many cancer patients or survivors who truly embodied the Cancer Conqueror spirit portrayed in the book I will summarize. I do remember talking to 1 Cancer Conquer rather early in the journey. It was only a brief conversation, but it was quite meaningful!

Greg Anderson uses the term Cancer Conqueror in several of his books. The Cancer Conqueror (1988) was re-titled Journeys With the Cancer Conqueror when it was reprinted, in 1999. This book is described as an honest and understandable modern-day parable that shows how a positive attitude and a hopeful spirit affects cancer and may even contribute to its cure. Its reader follows a step-by-step transformation from despair to hope. Patients are left encouraged that this day, this hour, this moment, is the time to create well-being, body, mind, and spirit.

The purpose of this series of blogs is to summarize the book. Although it was out of print when I was searching for it, I was able to obtain a copy by searching Amazon.com, where I found a few copies & ordered one.

I’ve read several books about people who have survived cancer. They are heart-warming, encouraging & often inspirational. Even in those cases where the story is miraculous & awe-inspiring, I have found that most of these feelings are temporary. Although they are wonderful books that we need to have available & to read, Journeys with the Cancer Conqueror is very different. It is a practical, action-oriented guide for cancer patients, survivors, care-givers, & family members & loved ones of cancer patients or survivors, which considers body, mind & spirit in the journey with cancer. Among its many goals is helping the reader find peace of mind & hope. Anderson does relate these to knowing God, but I can tell you from personal experience that they are not possible, on a permanent basis, apart from a personal relationship with God. This modern-day parable provides ample dialogue between the Cancer Conqueror & the man in the story, as they make several journeys, to allow the reader to relate to the thought processes that a cancer patient goes through on this journey.

Reading Journeys With The Cancer Conqueror I found it ironic to discover that God, acting as The Cancer Conqueror in my life, had been teaching me the lessons the Cancer Conqueror relates to the man in the story, on each of his 7 journeys. I can see that the 8 strategies Anderson discovered cancer survivors have in common [which I’ve reprinted below] are principles that have a much broader application than conquering cancer. They also help me express what I have done to emotionally, spiritually, physically, & psychologically conquer this disease. Previously, my explanation was, ‘it’s a package deal.’ I would try to explain that there are numerous factors involved; there isn’t a single element that I can point to as the sole reason for what is happening in my life, emotionally, spiritually, physically, & psychologically. Although I can say God is the most important element, I cannot leave out the fact that I have an important role to play. I know I am responsible for many aspects, but God is in control of the results. Nutrition & exercise also play an important role, as do supportive relationships. The list could go on & on. These 7 chapters develop the basis of discussion to help others who are struggling with cancer. If God had not spoken to me & told me that my cancer is not a death sentence, I would want either to read what is written in these 7 chapters or to have someone, who is a Cancer Conqueror, talk with me to share this information, these beliefs, these convictions, & these passions with me. I’m very excited to share this project with you! What you are about to read is not just words on the computer screen; they are words from my heart to yours. I pray they will make a difference in your life.

I’ve struggled, along the way, with how to relate to other cancer patients. How do I begin to dialogue with them, to give them hope, when they are not beginning their journey, as I did, with an assurance from God, before hearing the results of my 1st biopsy, that my cancer “is not a death sentence”? Where do I start, to give reasonable hope? Yes, I can share my faith in God & pray for them. Is that enough? It certainly is, if I’m not a cancer patient. What did I want? I did want prayer & concern, but not a pity party or indifference. My expectations were different for those who had been down the cancer road, as opposed to those who had not. What did I want from cancer patients & survivors? Did I get it? Hummm . . . Lots to think about. . .

After reading this book, I can see that God played the role of The Cancer Conqueror in my own life – WHAT A BLESSING! I believe He should play that role, even if we find a cancer survivor who is a Cancer Conqueror. If you don’t have a personal relationship with Him, you should start the journey by searching for a cancer survivor who is a Cancer Conqueror. I pray, as you read these chapters, you will be drawn to Him & desire a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, as your source of unconditional love, hope, encouragement, & strength.

I can’t imagine traveling this journey without God. He has repeatedly proven the truth of Philippians 4:13 [Amplified Bible] “I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me – I am ready for anything & equal to everything through him who infuses inner strength into me, [that is, I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].”
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The following is a series of excerpts from chapter 1 of Journeys with the Cancer Conqueror: Mobilizing Mind & Spirit, by Greg Anderson, 1999, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, Missouri. Emphasis is added with bold print to draw attention to cancer conqueror traits.
Most of the summary is quoted directly from the book, but I also add editorial comments along the way that reflect my own personal convictions, Scriptural support of ideas expressed, as well as research from other resources. These are indicated by italicized print. Portions in blue print that are NOT italicized are direct quotes from another source other than the Bible.
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Foreward by Abigail Van Buren
“Cancer conquerors don’t resign themselves to the inevitable.” What do we think of as the inevitable? Most of us assume that the diagnosis of cancer equates with inevitable death. However, “You can conquer cancer – you can recover.” This requires a “mental battle plan.”

Abigail Van Buren says this book tells the reader how to “establish an active role in their own recovery” It allows the reader to “tap deeply into their spirits & uncover the incredible healing power of hope by realizing, ‘I am stronger & possess more resources than I thought!’ This helps the patient evolve from barely surviving to living in a state of grace, able to celebrate each sacred moment.”

(While hope cannot literally heal, it can have a healing effect, as you will see later in the discussions of the mind-body-spirit connection. Our source of hope is in God. Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy & peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”)

In her final paragraph, Abigail says, “Reading books can change lives. And this book will change yours, by revealing a secret: When you discover you have cancer, you do have a choice – you can prepare to die or you can prepare to live. It is exactly when you make choices about your life & your treatment that your cancer no longer controls you [mentally & emotionally].”
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I've inserted the list below, which was included in the blog, "Growth Rate of Cancer – How Long Has it Been There?” posted June 25, 2009. As you read these 7 journeys, keep in mind the 8 strategies survivors have in common. Can you see these strategies utilized? Can you see how you might implement them on your journey?

Eight Strategies Survivors Have in Common
1. Medical treatment – Survivors literally take charge of the management of their entire medical program: They choose doctors in whom they have confidence; they consent only to treatment programs about which they have convictions; & survivors aggressively integrate complementary & alternative treatment approaches. . .

2. Beliefs & Attitudes – Cancer survivors choose beliefs & attitudes about their illness, as well as their potential for wellness, that empower. The most fundamental & empowering belief is that cancer does not equate with death . . . survivors recognize [the] truth – cancer may or may not mean death. This intellectual stance carries a vastly different outlook from either the super-positive or hopelessly negative beliefs & attitudes. Survivors believe, “Yes, I may die. But I also may live. And I am going to invest my time, whatever the length, in living the best way I know.”. . . [Survivors] challenge the conventional thinking about treatment & potential side effects. They choose to conceive of their treatment as highly effective, believing that they will have minimal & manageable side effects. . . They believe their active personal involvement is absolutely essential to the recovery process.

3. Exercise – Cancer survivors believe strongly in the importance of exercise, & they act on that belief.

4. Purpose/Play Balance – Purpose involves survivors perceiving that they are needed, that their life has special & unique meaning . . . a life mission . . . Survivors balance this profound idea of life purpose with a lighter, more playful attitude of fun for fun’s sake, an outlook that creates joy.

5. Social Support – Cancer survivors invest more time & emotional energy in relationships that nurture them & invest less in those that are toxic. . . Cancer tends to give patients permission to examine a wide variety of their life choices, including their social support system.

6. Diet & Nutrition – The majority of cancer survivors report making significant dietary changes. . . “Survivors eat with awareness.” They raise their nutritional IQ & develop a greater understanding of the nutrients contained in their food selections. Survivors also feed themselves less for emotional & psychological reasons, concentrating instead on delivering premium nutrients to the body. They embrace foods that are less processed. There is a documented shift to a more vegetarian approach. Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, & whole grains are the new foods of choice. A marked decrease in all meat, particularly red meat, is widely held to be beneficial.

7. Creative Thinking – Survivors mobilize the mind to heal. Affirmations, meditation, & imagery are widely employed within the context of a comprehensive treatment program. Survivors use meditative techniques to reduce the symptoms of illness, manage the side effects of treatment, & improve emotional well-being.

8. Spirituality – Survivors embrace a more spiritual perspective. They view life differently than prior to their brush with death. . . To call spirituality a “strategy” is inadequate; “spiritual transformation” is a more accurate description. Thousands of survivors demonstrate entirely new spirit; they become new people.

Each survivor creates his or her own specific recovery plan within the structure of these eight strategies. One principle takes priority at the appropriate time. Seldom do survivors make simultaneous wholesale changes in all eight areas. Those who attempt to change too much too quickly often meet with temporary defeat & have to start again.

This information is a small portion of the information on this topic, from Greg Anderson’s book, Cancer – 50 Essential Things to Do. The list is the result of compiling the data from having contacted survivors across North America & conducting interviews with patients who were “supposed to die” but lived. These are the strategies that were common among the more than 15,000 people he had interviewed, as of the writing of his first book, The Cancer Conqueror, published in 1988.
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Preface by Greg Anderson
Greg begins by telling readers, “It is possible to survive, even thrive, following a cancer diagnosis.”

He is a survivor of metastatic lung cancer. In 1984, he had one lung removed, but 4 months later the cancer was back. This time it invaded his lymph system. The surgeon told him, “Greg, the tiger is out of the cage. Your cancer has come roaring back. I would give you 30 days to live.”

(In Cancer: 50 Essential Things To Do, Anderson states the following: “Part of the reason that the surgeon was mistaken is that no healthcare provider can predict a patient’s response to illness. After a couple of days of believing I would die, I made a profound decision. I decided to live!

“Please clearly understand what I’m saying. By deciding to live I made a decision to do all I could to triumph over the cancer. I determined to live each day I was given to the very best of my ability. I chose not to focus on the despair implicit in the surgeon’s words; I would instead adopt a stance of hopefulness. These decisions drastically changed my experience of illness. This resulted not only in better days but many more days as well. I believe such a decision may result in a similar outcome for you.

“This message has its critics; it’s controversial. More than once, esteemed members of the health community have publicly accused me of spreading false hope. My answer is simple & direct. I believe there is no such thing as false hope, there is only reasonable hope. Reasonable hope is a medicine worthy of consumption in large doses.

“What is clearly false is the pronouncement that sets a limit on ‘false hopelessness.’ It is false because no human being knows how long anyone has left to live. To prognosticate in such a manner is not only unprofessional, it is unethical. Healers [Doctors] instill hope. They do not schedule death.

I understand that Anderson is referring to doctors as healers, but doctors cannot heal. God may use them as instruments & work through them, but only God can heal. Exodus 15:26b “I am the Lord, who heals you.”)

“So decide to live! Embrace hope. [Having] hope heals. It is a decision that always leads to better days & perhaps more of them as well.”

(Psalm 62:5 “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” Psalm 103:2-3 “Praise the Lord, O my soul, & forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins & heals all your diseases.”)

Through this experience, he says, “This much has become increasingly & abundantly clear to me: The body’s healing capacity is directly linked to one’s mental & spiritual well-being. Embracing healthy beliefs & attitudes, learning to effectively resolve emotional distress, & moving in the direction of greater joy & gratitude all have a direct impact on our physical health.”

(3 John 2 “. . . I pray that you may enjoy good health & that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”)

He ends the preface with, “Cancer is a message to change. And those changes are desirable.”
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Chapter 1 – Cancer Conquerors Search
This chapter opens with the reader meeting a man who is diagnosed with cancer. He is frightened & confused. You read the thoughts that go through his head. Of course, he asks, “Why me?” He came back with the typical rationalizations. He wanted to know what this meant for him medically. How could this happen to him? He felt as if he was losing control.

(When I went to my family doctor, in September of 2007, to find out why the lymph node under my left arm was painful & enlarged, she told me one of the possibilities was lymphoma; I was very shocked & frightened.



The very first thing Anderson tells readers, in his book Cancer: 50 Essential Things to Do, is to Stop “Awfulizing.” Reading this section & the questions he says a newly diagnosed cancer patient asks is right on target. He describes how I felt as I went through several tests to determine the cause of the pain & enlargement of the lymph node & considered the possibility of having lymphoma. He states:


“You’ve been told ‘It’s [it might be] cancer.’ I have deep compassion for you. I fully appreciate your feelings. I’ve been there too.


“First, you’re in shock, & filled with fear. The next moment you’re angry but not quite certain at what or whom. Then comes the thoughts of ‘How did this happen? Why me?’ Even the guilt starts to creep in, ‘Did I bring this on myself?’ Plus, all the questions have started to rush through your mind: ‘Will I die?’ ‘How long do I have?’ ‘What will happen to my family?’ [I did research on lymphoma, found out that there were 2 types, & ask God if I had lymphoma, if I could have the one that has a longer life expectancy – thinking about this now, I can’t believe I was trying to make a deal with God] & on & on & on. Your mind is overwhelmed at times.


“Be calm. Try not to panic. I know that this is easier said than done, but be aware that panic will only inhibit rational & positive action.


“Cancer is a serious illness but it is not necessarily fatal. You do have the luxury of some time. Unlike a severed artery, cancer does not require you to do something this very instant. A hurried response, based in the emotions of fear & panic, is neither required nor preferred. In fact, a hurried response may be harmful. Don’t take that as a license for inaction, however.


“Stop & examine your frenzied thoughts for just a moment. It is at the beginning stages of this journey that clear decision-making will be most important. With these early decisions, you will ensure that your illness is properly treated. Panic acts only to your detriment.


“Panic is a mental phenomenon, a response to our thoughts about cancer being frightful & overpowering. The process can accurately be labeled as ‘awfulizing.’ Isn’t that an apt description? When we awfulize, we take our current situation to its worst possible conclusion.


“If we will observe our emotions objectively for just a moment, we will see something different from initial appearances. The intense panic that virtually every cancer patient experiences is actually the mind projecting its fears about the unknown future. Think about it, & understand this truth: Panic is caused by an assumption. It is not based on material fact.”


When I was sent to a surgeon for a biopsy, he told me there was less than a 50/50 chance it was malignant. If you’ve read “My Story” you know that God told me, before I went to meet with the surgeon, to get the results of the biopsy, that the biopsy was malignant, but the cancer is not a death sentence. The initial diagnosis still hit us like a ton of bricks. We had to wait until further testing was completed to determine whether it was breast cancer or lung cancer, since the surgeon told us the pathologist confirmed it definitely was not lymphoma.
God’s reassurance that it’s not a death sentence has been a lifeline to hope & peace. Even in the midst of my “awfulizing,” I turned to God in prayer to quiet my panic & to bring me back to reality. I always know God will give me grace to face whatever challenges are ahead of me. He has ALWAYS been faithful, & I have NO reason to think He will let me down when I need Him most. “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock & my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” Psalm 62:1-2)

His medical team & oncologist were reassuring that his chances were good, but that still did not remove his gnawing sense of fear. He still had many more questions that were unanswered.

He wished he could talk to someone who had been through a similar experience.

He found a long-term survivor, but she looked as if she might die any minute. Even though she had survived for 5 years – the standard “you are cured” time frame – her quality of life was less than desirable. He wasn’t looking for poor life quality.

The man knew that for his sake, as well as for the people around him, he had to find his answers soon.

Then he remembered a co-worker who, several years ago, had lived through cancer. And the interesting thing about his friend’s experience was that the cancer journey seemed to have changed her much for the better. Not only was this woman’s cancer under control but she seemed to be leading a new life, a better life than ever before.

Maybe I should talk to her right away, thought the man. When he called his friend’s home, one of the children said her parents were on a trip & wouldn’t return for another week. Then she certainly must be doing well, decided the man.

He asked the friend’s daughter, “Do you know what doctor your mother saw?”

“No,” she replied, “I don’t know the doctor. But I do know that she spent the most time with the Cancer Conqueror.”

“The Cancer Conqueror?” asked the man.

“Yes,” answered the daughter. “That’s the affectionate name we gave to a woman & a group of her friends who taught my mother & our family about cancer. We learned that people can conquer cancer &, in doing so, may even cure it.”

The man felt a positive, supportive attitude from the girl when she asked, “Do you have cancer?”

“Yes,” said the man. “How can I get in touch with the Cancer Conqueror?”
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Search for another survivor, a cancer conqueror. As you read each succeeding chapter summary, you will have a better idea what a cancer conqueror is. First, look for a survivor, & pray that you find, as this man did, a cancer conqueror, as well.


In succeeding chapters, you go on the man’s journeys with the Cancer Conqueror. At the end of each chapter, there is a homework assignment the man is given to complete by the next visit, which I do not include here.


This search may not be as simple as Greg Anderson makes it seem. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was in a state of unbelief for some time, during which, I was not searching for a cancer survivor. Once it actually sunk in that I am a cancer patient, in fact I am a stage IV cancer patient, I wanted to talk to another stage IV cancer patient, but I did not know how to go about finding someone. I knew women who had survived breast cancer, but they did not have stage IV breast cancer. Besides that, I am not an assertive individual who will take the initiative to contact such a person. I will wait for her to contact me, if she thinks she has something she wants to share with me. I know that’s not the position to take, but it’s how my brain works post-brain injury. Previously, I would have been on the phone to such an individual to ask questions. The lesson to me today is to be sensitive to the people I know. God has used this experience to help me understand that if a friend or acquaintance is diagnosed with cancer, I need to take the initiative to make contact with that person, to provide support & encouragement. I want to know what role of the Cancer Conqueror I can play in his or her life. No experience is ever wasted in God’s economy!


If you are the family member, loved one, friend or care-giver of a cancer patient you can be a tremendous blessing & a huge help by assisting in making contacts & providing opportunities for connections between survivors, with a Cancer Conqueror spirit, & the cancer patient you know & love. The cancer patient is often too consumed with all that is going on to be able to focus on this task. Their main focus is being surrounded by love & support from family, friends, & loved ones, as they try to understand their disease & how it will be treated & consider their future. They are looking for hope & peace of mind. As I stated before, both are found in a personal relationship with God. If they know God, we can help them turn to look to him to find hope & peace. If they do not know God, we can introduce them to Him, as their source of hope & peace.


Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with joy & peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”


2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Praise be to the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion & the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

Ch 2 - Cancer Conquerors Take Responsibility

The following is a series of excerpts from chapter 2 of Journeys with the Cancer Conqueror: Mobilizing Mind & Spirit, by Greg Anderson, 1999, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, Missouri, previously published under the title: The Cancer Conqueror (1988). Emphasis is added with bold print to draw attention to cancer conqueror traits. Much of the summary is quoted directly from the book, but I also add editorial comments along the way that reflect my own personal convictions, Scriptural support of ideas expressed, as well as research from other resources. These are indicated by italicized print. Portions in blue print that are NOT italicized are direct quotes from another source other than the Bible.    *******************************************************************************
This chapter is, of course, a narrative of the man’s 1st journey with the Cancer Conqueror. She’s very warm, approachable & hospitable.

She asks the man to describe briefly his disease & the prognosis. After she heard this, she asked, “Do you have a high level of confidence in your medical team?”

“Yes,” said the man, “I believe they are very knowledgeable & that they have the latest in available technology.”

“Excellent. The basis for my recovery also started with a fine medical team. I had a great deal of confidence in their abilities & in them as individuals also. But I insisted that they share all information with me in terms I could understand. And I wanted explanations for each & every test. I had to be part of every treatment decision. What I was really doing was taking personal responsibility for my health – personal responsibility for my getting well.”

(The patient’s role isn’t to be passive & unquestioning. We need to be proactive – actively involved – in our medical treatment & our health. Author Stephen R. Covey, in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, describes proactivity as follows: “It means more that merely taking initiative. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative & the responsibility to make things happen.


“Look at the word RESPONSIBILITY – ‘response-ability’ – the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on feeling.” Although I love this definition, I feel that it is necessary to qualify the fact that in terms of being a proactive cancer patient, our choices are NOT based on FEELINGS but on information learned by asking questions, research conducted to help understand what we’ve been told, &, most importantly, God’s guidance sought through prayer.


When I go to appointments, I either have the person with me take notes or I take notes. We also go to every appointment with a list of questions we want to have answered. I research what I’m told on the Internet. From my research, I often come up with questions to ask at the next appointment. I’m vigilant in following instructions, in terms of taking medications or following my doctor’s orders. These things are my response-ability. My doctor cannot do them for me. In fact, God cannot do them for me either. They are my response-ability.)

When the man didn’t quite understand, the Cancer Conqueror added, “Personal responsibility for getting well, for conquering cancer is one of the most important principles of the entire journey. If you choose this path – the cancer conqueror path – personal responsibility will come up again & again. It is one of those cornerstone principles that supports everything else.

(I was not always a proactive patient, but my family was for me. During the first few months, my husband & daughter searched things on the Internet & read everything that was sent home for us to read. I read only what I HAD to read before our appointment with the surgeon we thought would perform my mastectomy, depending on the final outcome of the staging of my cancer. When the family was making a list of questions before an appointment, I would maybe contribute one. They completed the list.


December 20, 2007 I had an appointment with Dr. Patel. [I write extensively about this appointment in Chapter 8 of “My Story.”] I was going to go to the appointment by myself; I thought I was asked to come in for this unscheduled appointment because Dr. Patel was going to tell me he wanted me to have another test run before next week’s appointment, because of something he saw on my PET scan results that we hadn't seen or discussed with him yet. I had already insisted that Ed not cancel his meeting at work. The 19th, I was finally convinced to take someone with me. My sister agreed to go along. I needed a list of questions. Guess who wrote the list? Me! Finally, I was involved. Since that day, I have been the one to write out the list of questions for my appointments. I’m the one who does the Internet research; I read books about treating cancer with nutrition. etc.)

Personal responsibility for health means refusing to be a victim. It means participating in recovery by recognizing & changing self-destructive beliefs & behavior. Personal responsibility for health means believing ‘I am in charge of my cancer. My cancer is not in charge of me.’

(Especially at the beginning of the journey, it’s so easy to feel as if cancer controls your life. Everything in your life seems to revolve around your disease. You are overwhelmed by it! The following is just a partial list: There are doctor’s visits, diagnostic tests, lab work, phone calls to make, waiting on return phone calls, waiting on test results, dealing with medical insurance matters, taking new prescriptions & watching for side effects; concerned people call to get updates, which you are very happy to get, but you also can find draining at times; nearly every conversation begins with, “how are you doing,” which is usually your cue to give a brief update on where things stand & how you are feeling. If your treatment involves chemotherapy and/or radiation, these appointments consume portions of your time, as well as dealing with any side effects. In my case, I was put on a very strict diet so that I felt as though every time I shopped for food & every time I prepared a meal cancer was the deciding factor in my choices. When I chose to add exercise, because I learned that cancer cells “hate” oxygen [it kills them], I initially felt as if cancer was driving my regular exercise routine. Every time I took my nutritional supplements I was reminded of my cancer’s seeming control over me & the monthly cash outlay to purchase them, since they are not covered by insurance. In most cases you are TRYING to manage all of this while leading the rest of your life as “normally” as possible. SURE!! How do you fit in all of your normal responsibilities & activities? You want to spend extra time with your family & friends, but when do you have time to do that? Prior to your treatment starting you feel well enough to have a good time with your loved ones. Will your feel well after your treatment starts, so that you can enjoy the extra time you want to spend with them? These are common questions.


It took about a year for me to come to a point & place where I realized that I am in charge of my cancer. I am doing things such as going to doctors’ visits, having diagnostic tests done & making healthy choices, which work in conjunction with my medical treatment to control the cancer. In this way, I am in control of my cancer. My cancer is not in control of me.


Of course, I am also past all of the initial merry-go-round of appointments, tests, & decisions. I know that God is ultimately in control, but I also know that I have personal responsibility to take these actions. I’m not to just sit by passively & wait for God to “take care of the cancer.” That would be irresponsible; I would be doing things that contributed to my cancer in the first place. [More about that in a later chapter.] If you’ve read my story, you know I am doing what God’s led me to do. I feel it is imperative that I remain vigilant in following His plan & leave the results to Him. Since He promised that this is not a death sentence, I have tremendous hope. Praise God! Jeremiah 29:11-14a “I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you & not to harm you, plans to give you hope & a future. Then you will call upon me & come & pray to me, & I will listen to you. You will seek me & find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.’” Proverbs 16:3-4 “Commit to the Lord whatever you do & your plans will succeed. The Lord works out everything for his own ends.”)

“Selecting a medical team in which we have a high level of confidence is our first responsibility after diagnosis. But once they are in place, our attention must also focus on the role of mind & spirit in this journey.”

The Cancer Conqueror explained, “When I encountered cancer, I instinctively knew that this was not just an experience on a physical level. I knew that my mind & spirit had a central role to play. Personal responsibility meant that if I was to live a full & healthy life, whatever the length, that decision rested not with my doctors but with me. . . Once my medical team made its contribution, it was my job to discover & use all my healing potential. This perspective leads beyond the body to the mind & the spirit. . . The members of the medical team will do all they can to help the body. If you will support them with good nutrition, exercise, & rest, the physical portion of the journey will be in place.”

(The phrase “healing potential” may seem off-putting to some, but, if you read on to the later portion of the paragraph, you discover some of what he’s referring to. Certainly, the physical portion is easy to see & understand. The spiritual portion is one sought through prayer & searching the Scriptures for God’s hope, peace & encouragement. It’s also helpful in maintaining &/or building a personal relationship with Him on a daily basis, so that He is your source of strength for the challenges you meet physically, mentally & emotionally. Habakkuk 3:19 [Amplified Bible] “The Lord is my strength, my personal bravery, & my invisible army . . . & will make me walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] & make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility].”)

“Okay,” said the man. “I’ll do those things. But I’m not sure about the mind & spirit. Can I learn”

The Cancer Conquer told her story. She had breast cancer. She had surgery to remove it. Six months later a growth protruded from her neck. “Again, surgery. It was malignant. The cancer had now spread, & they could not operate. The surgeon closed the incision, ordered radiation therapy & told me to get my affairs in order. According to statistics, I had a year, maybe a little more to live.”

She was frightened & had lost all hope. She believed what the doctors had told her. The fear paralyzed her. At her lowest point of deep despair, she cried out with words that “were full of rage & anger & fear. ‘Oh God, what can I do?’”

(When I cry out to God like this, I follow it with prayer. I will often follow it by opening my Bible to look at favorite verses that I have marked by underlining or highlighting them. More recently, I decided to type these verses into a Word file so I can find them quicker. I have key words in bold print to help me in my searches. I also used the concordance & did several word searches to find additional verses to add to these. After I’d been doing this for a few weeks, my son-in-law told me about an online site that offers a concordance & several other Bible study resources, for all versions of the Bible – what a time saver! http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/ Often, God helps me to add to my list. This is the way God most frequently speaks to me, through Scripture that suddenly feels as if it is written to me personally.


This is an example that might be a first step, to reassure this frightened woman: Lamentations 3:22-23 “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”)

She continues, “But somehow through the tears, a different thought came. It was as if someone was saying, ‘You may not be given long to live, but live as long as you are given.’

“I discovered a seed of hope in that thought, a seed I knew needed special care & attention. ‘Live as long as you are given.’ It was a seed that provided sustenance for me during the countless down times. I knew that every day I had to rededicate myself to living that one day for all it was worth.

“Love now. This is the core of conquering cancer.”

The Cancer Conqueror explained that this is “merely the tip of a transformational discovery. Living today, doing the best I could to make love my aim, here & now, held a tremendous message of hope & healing for me. It changed not only my health but my entire life.

She then told the man that he would learn 3 Cancer Conqueror principles: believe, resolve & live, by visiting 3 different people over the next 3 weeks.

She reminds him: You are in charge of your response to cancer!
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Greg inserts a section, ahead of the chapter’s assignment, titled –
Personal Responsibility: Gaining a Sense of Control
The purpose of this section is to urge cancer patients to take a proactive response to their illness.

He states, “The degree to which a patient takes personal responsibility for his or her own actions & feelings in response to a cancer diagnosis is a crucially important determinant of the course of an illness.

“Awareness & choice are the twin pillars that support personal responsibility. We increase awareness through our personal research & education, become eager students, ready to learn everything we can about our diagnosis & range of treatment options. From this knowledge base, we exercise fully informed consent to treatments & make intentional choices in our physical, emotional, & spiritual lifestyles.”

“Just as less-than-mindful attention will contribute to a less-than-optimal response, a fully mindful response holds the promise of direct health benefits. We have the power to become aware of & make changes in our beliefs & behavior. It as simple, & as complex, as changing our thinking.

(A “fully mindful response” is an informed, intentional response. As you make lifestyle choices, make medical decisions & give consent to medications & treatment, your attitude toward the effectiveness of any of these is extremely critical to their actual effectiveness, as you will see, in a later chapter. If you check Chapter 11 of “My Story” you will see that Dr. Patel told me that if I don’t BELIEVE hormone therapy or chemotherapy will work it won’t. I found that to be a curious statement for a doctor to make. I now understand it, after reading the research.)

“When we assume personal responsibility for our choices, we have the ability to change our every experience of cancer.

“Central to success is assuming personal responsibility for proper diet & appropriate exercise. Stress management has a key supportive role & deserves to be understood & implemented by the serious wellness student. So do belief & attitudes, resolution of emotional conflicts & hostility, plus capturing a sense of joy. And adopting a more spiritual focus on life may be the most important recovery tool of all.

(For me, it is my spiritual focus, my personal relationship with God that provides me with the effective tools to work through each of these other areas. I have to pray, I have to read my Bible, I have to apply the principles I’ve learned from past trials, consistently, but it is God who is faithful to keep his promises. James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature & complete, not lacking anything.” I can tell you that I did not count it a “joy” to be diagnosed with cancer, at the outset. However, I’m a little further down the road today & will now tell you that it’s one of the best things that has ever happened in my life. Praise God! It goes to show what a difference it makes when we allow God to work in our lives. I did not make that statement for the sake of impressing you; I mean it with all sincerity! How did it happen? Psalm 32:8 “I will instruct you & teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you & watch over you.”Psalm 145:13 “The Lord is faithful to all his promises & loving toward all he has made.” God has proved this to me, through experience after experience.


What about resolving emotional conflicts & hostility? Proverbs 14:30a “A heart at peace gives life to the body.” Colossians 3:15a “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Ephesians 4:26-28 “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are angry, & do not give the devil a foothold.” Romans 12:19 “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.”
Nehemiah 8:10d “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”)

“Nobody can accomplish these tasks for us. Nobody can get well for us. In the final analysis, we must walk the wellness path for ourselves. We stand personally accountable for this journey.”

As stated above, the portions in bold print are the key factors that define a Cancer Conqueror, for this chapter, in terms of taking personal responsibility. At the beginning of the journey, it is difficult to get your bearings. Your mind is racing with so many thoughts! Everyone is different; so, the specific thoughts may differ somewhat. However, there is a general theme that plays out for all of us. I know it did for me. There are certain questions we all ask ourselves. Unfortunately, some of these questions don’t have answers. Most questions can be answered, if we know whom to ask. There are also questions we should ask, but we don’t know what those questions are.


I thank God for the way in which He placed people in our pathway to help lead us along so that we were nudged in the right direction & stayed on the path He planned for me. As you read the beginning of my journey, from my 1st trip to investigate a sore shoulder to my diagnosis with stage IV breast cancer in chapters 2 through 8 of “My Story,” you can see how He used many people. In particular, the specific doctors’ medical knowledge, perceptiveness & understanding to help us understand the decisions we had to make, to understand a little more about cancer & the type of cancer I have, to understand the types of treatment available, etc. I write about how he used my family doctor. She was a sounding board for an additional medical opinion. She also provided referrals for a 2nd opinion surgical doctor & an alternative treatment oncologist. In addition, she was involved when I had to go off of my hormone replacement therapy, which set off a whole series of other issues I discuss in Chapter 12 of “My Story”. God used friends who kept needling us to go for a 2nd opinion to eventually prompt us to make an appointment. God used a friendly nurse or receptionist on the other end of the phone, when I called Geisinger to make the 2nd opinion appointment, to make things fall in place FAST. I could go on, & on, & on, & on, & on. . . The point is: We can see God’s hand in the entire process, in hindsight, even when we weren’t entirely cognizant of it at the present time. Obviously, we were praying about each of these circumstances & so were others, but we were so caught up in the busyness of the situation that we could not fully appreciate what God was doing until we could catch our breath.


If we’ve done our SEARCH for a survivor & found one, he or she can help us to gain a proper perspective & to be encouraged, to have hope. Assuming he or she is a Cancer Conqueror, he or she can help us understand the importance of responsibility & inspire us to take steps in that direction. He or she can answer questions, provide information & prompt us to ask questions we didn’t know to ask.


I was not so fortunate as to have a Cancer Conqueror to help me down this road. However, I thank God for the way in which He led us on this journey. It was a longer process not having a Cancer Conqueror to help me, but God did help me find the Cancer Conquer path, as He has filled that role of THE Cancer Conqueror in my life. I’m conquering my cancer, by the grace of God!! PRAISE HIM!!


It now is so satisfying when God opens the door & allows me to play the role of the CANCER CONQUEROR in someone else’s life. PRAISE GOD!!! It adds meaning & purpose to my walking this path.
“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

Ch 3 - Cancer Conquerors Believe

The following is a series of excerpts from chapter 3 of Journeys with the Cancer Conqueror: Mobilizing Mind & Spirit, by Greg Anderson, 1999, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, Missouri, previously published under the title: The Cancer Conqueror (1988). Emphasis is added with bold print to draw attention to cancer conqueror traits. Much of the summary is quoted directly from the book, but I also add editorial comments along the way that reflect my own personal convictions, Scriptural support of ideas expressed, as well as research from other resources. These are indicated by italicized print. Portions in blue print that are NOT italicized are direct quotes from another source other than the Bible.    ******************************************************************************
Mary is the woman the man met on this week’s journey. She began by asking him a question. “What do you think cancer means?”

“I’m not sure,” said the man. “I know it is a serious illness that will probably end my life pretty quickly unless I do something about it. And the Cancer Conqueror said it was more than physical. To me cancer is the worst nightmare I’ve ever had to deal with.”

Mary smiled. “Those are pretty common beliefs about cancer. Society has conditioned us to think negatively & fearfully about this disease. And while some of that conditioning can be good, it has resulted in harmful untruths like these:
• Cancer means death.
• Treatment options are limited & ineffective & have horrible side effects.
• Once you contract cancer, there is nothing you can do to help yourself.
“The truth is that
• Cancer may or may not mean death.
• Treatment options are many & are becoming more effective, & side effects are less severe every day.
• Once you contract cancer, there are many things you can do – physically, emotionally, & spiritually – to help yourself.

“The untruths lead to beliefs that result in despair. With despair there is no power. But the truths lead to hope. With hope there is significant power."

(When it comes to cancer, we have to search for the truth about the disease. We don’t realize how many common misconceptions most of us hold, because of our narrow exposure to it. If you’re like me, you immediately think of family members, friends, acquaintances, etc. who lost their battles with the disease. The picture we conjure up is usually not very pretty. How many people can you think of who are cancer survivors? How many of these had early stage cancers? How many of them were late stage cancer patients who were supposed to die but lived? If you are reading this & have received the news, “you have cancer,” did you think of the people you knew who lost their battles with the disease first or those who survived first? Which would give you greater hope? Did you immediately assume you were going to die of cancer? Do you know that taking these journeys with the Cancer Conqueror & then applying these strategies can enhance the effectiveness of your medical treatment? Cancer Conquering is not just for late-stage cancer patients.)

“What you choose to believe about cancer is crucial to your journey. Note how the truths match 3 belief areas – the disease itself, the treatment, & your role. Your beliefs about the disease, the treatment, & your role have incredible power over the outcome, & you can choose these beliefs.”

(Each of us has to take whatever time is necessary to process what is happening to us, before we can look at this disease from a positive perspective. I remember watching a Christian woman on TV telling about her experience with breast cancer. She went on about how God used it in such positive ways & thanked God that she had gone through the experience with cancer. I knew I SHOULD feel that way, but I didn’t. Instead, I prayed about it & asked God to help me see it that way. It took another YEAR before I could recognize the many ways in which God is using this experience to make my life better & my health better than it was before I was diagnosed with cancer. I’ve made the statement before, & you’ll read it many more times, because I sincerely mean it. My diagnosis with cancer is one of the best things that has ever happened in my life! Praise God!

This positive perspective has the potential to enhance the effectiveness of my medical treatment, as you will see.)

Mary explained that she learned more about the disease. She learned that more than half of the cases like hers were cured, which meant it was not an automatic death sentence.

Next, Mary asked, “What do you believe about treatments?”

The man paused. “I guess I feel they are probably not very effective. And when it comes to side effects, I’m afraid of all the horrible possibilities.”

Mary explained that she had shared his feelings. She then described her experience with her treatment. She learned that the treatment plan was very hopeful.

The man asked about side effects, & Mary explained that at the beginning of her chemotherapy sessions she “read about the psychological component of side effects. A research study tracked a group of people who were given sterile water injections instead of chemotherapy, & a third of them lost their hair anyway. . .

“The only explanation the researchers could give for the hair loss was psychological [a placebo effect]. They lost their hair because they believed chemotherapy caused hair loss. . . And another 30 percent of the people got sick on their way to chemotherapy. They experienced nausea not after the drug had been administered, not during the administration, but before – in anticipation of chemotherapy.

“I realized my beliefs & attitudes contributed to the severity of my side effects. Of course that doesn’t mean no one will never experience hair loss or mouth sores or be nauseous again. But it does mean that there is a psychological component to side effects, & we can work to control that component."

(We’ve all heard the mind over matter arguments, which are also called psychosomatic symptoms. Some body (somatic) symptoms have no known physiological basis. Symptoms seem more related to beliefs and emotions than to physical damage or biological causes. These are real physical symptoms caused or aggravated by psychological factors such as migraine, back pain and irritable bowel syndrome.

The impact of psychological factors on many health aspects cannot be ignored. For example, stress can affect a person's susceptibility to infection or their recovery from illness. Although the symptoms are real, physicians may have great difficulty in diagnosing an actual illness or its cause.

Because this phenomenon exists, it is frustrating when you have an actual physical problem doctors are unable to diagnose for which you are treated as if it is “all in your head.” I’ve been down this road. After 11 doctors, the 12th took me seriously & did the correct diagnostic test to discover the actually source of my difficulties, which resulted in surgery that corrected the problems I’d dealt with for several years.

Another common factor is known as the placebo effect. This is described as, “The physician’s belief in the treatment & the patient’s faith in the physician exert a mutually reinforcing effect; they result in a powerful remedy that is almost guaranteed to produce an improvement & sometimes a cure.” – Petr Skrabanek & James McCormick, Follies & Fallacies in Medicine. “The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health or behavior not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment that has been administered. . .

“A person’s beliefs & hopes about a treatment, combined with their suggestibility, may have a significant biochemical effect. SENSORY EXPERIENCE & THOUGHTS CAN AFFECT NEUROCHEMISTRY [emphasis added]. The body’s neurochemical system affects & is affected by other biochemical systems, including the hormonal & immune systems. Thus, IT IS CONSISTENT WITH CURRENT KNOWLEDGE THAT A PERSON’S HOPEFUL ATTITUDE & BELIEFS MAY BE VERY IMPORTANT TO THEIR PHYSICAL WELL-BEING & RECOVERY FROM INJURY OR ILLNESS [emphasis added; for extra emphasis, read it again!].

“The psychological explanation seems to be the one most commonly believed . . . there are too many studies that have found objective improvements in health from placebos to support the notion that the placebo effect is entirely psychological.

“Doctors in one study successfully eliminated warts by painting them with a brightly colored, inert dye & promising patients the warts would be gone when the color wore off. In a study of asthmatics, researchers found that they could produce dilation of the airways by simply telling people they were inhaling a bronchodilator, even when they weren’t. Patients suffering pain after wisdom-tooth extraction got just as much relief from a fake application of ultrasound as from a real one, so long as both patient & therapist thought the machine was on. Fifty-two percent of the colitis patients treated with placebos in 11 different trials reported feeling better – 50 percent of the inflamed intestines actually looked better when assessed with a sigmoidoscope [‘The Placebo Prescription’ by Margaret Talbot, New York Times Magazine, January 9, 2000].

“It is unlikely that such effects are purely psychological.”

Dr. Walter A. Brown, a psychiatrist at Brown University, & others “believe that the placebo effect is mainly or purely physical & due to changes that promote healing or feeling better. [So, how do we explain the placebo effect?] Some think it is the process of administering it. It is thought that the touching, the caring, the attention, & other interpersonal communication that is part of the controlled study process (or the therapeutic setting), along with the hopefulness & encouragement provided by the experimenter/[physician], affect the mood, expectations, & beliefs of the subject, which in turn triggers physical changes such as release of endorphins, catecholamines, cortisol, or adrenaline. The process reduces stress by providing hope or reducing uncertainty about what treatment to take or what the outcome will be. The reduction in stress prevents or slows down further harmful physical changes from occurring. The healing situation provokes a conditioned response.” http://skepdic.com/placebo.html 

Philippians 4:8 “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” This verse tells us where we should focus our thoughts. We are not talking about just positive thinking, but possibility thinking. Think about all the possibilities that are available through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Matthew 19:26 “with God all things are possible.” It’s possible to overcome the side effects of cancer treatment if we maintain hope, rather than mere wishful thinking, & believe God designed your body with the capability to recover. We must believe He WILL facilitate the effectiveness of the cooperation between the body & the medical treatment.)

“In short, the belief we want to encourage is that the treatment is our friend. And as our friend, it is effective in helping overcome the physical aspects of the illness. It is fair to assume, then, that the side effects will, most likely, be very minimal”

Mary continued, “The Cancer Conqueror taught me that I needed to believe in my treatment program even more than the physician who prescribed it did! That was a revelation to me. She went on to say that the treatment program was something I needed to get excited about. I would need to align myself with the treatment, believe in its effectiveness, & think of it as a welcome ally. I admit I spent a lot of time nurturing this belief.

(If you read chapter 11 of “My Story”, you read that Dr. Patel explained that my opinion of & attitude toward the form of treatment chosen is crucial to its success, even though he did not speak of treatment as a possible cure or talk about recovery. When diagnosed with stage IV, or advanced stage cancer, oncologists never use the words cure, recovery or remission in their discussions. They only talk about stabilizing the disease – keeping it from getting worse – & providing “quality of life.” For me, quality of life is more than the state of my cancer, & controlling side effects of any treatment &/or possible symptoms of the cancer itself; it’s living every day to the fullest, with love, joy, hope & peace of mind, which develops through my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The oncologists cannot provide this, but I am convinced that God works through them to provide medical insight & wisdom to diagnose, treat, & monitor the disease biologically & physically.

At this point, Dr. Patel stated that if I don’t think chemotherapy or hormone therapy will work, it won’t work. This appointment, to discuss my treatment options, was bathed in prayer – our family’s & those of many, many prayer warriors who were praying for us. As I describe in writing chapter 11 of "My Story," we had a peace that was beyond understanding – God’s peace – when we made our choice. My belief in my treatment & its effectiveness was strong, from the beginning, because I knew it was God’s choice for me.
I have talked with others who have described their treatment as their friend, or something similar. It is helpful to maintain a positive perspective on the treatment chosen. Cancer is the enemy, not the treatment. When we have witnessed the heartbreaking effects of treatment on loved ones, in late stages of the disease, who’ve lost their battles with the disease; it might seem that the treatment was worse than the disease itself. These treatments are often done in an attempt to prolong life and/or in hopes of providing more quality of life for the time they have remaining. It doesn’t always work out the way the oncologist or the family thinks it will. For this reason, it’s easy to view treatment as the enemy. We have to change this perspective & misconception; it is actually a narrow view of cancer treatment.)

“But even more important than beliefs about the disease, the treatment, & the side effects are the beliefs we have about our role in the cancer journey.”

(This is what another author, a pharmaceutical scientist, says about this matter: "In practice, people recover when they take placebos. The effect has been shown to cause spontaneous recovery anywhere between 10 percent & 100 percent of people, depending upon the nature of the trial & the type of illness being studied. . . The placebo effect makes you wonder how many of the people who receive a drug in medical trials actually recover due to the placebo effect. Does the drug itself cause them to get well or is it their BELIEF in the drug that caused them to recover?"

Another author states that "belief, motivation, & expectation are essential to the placebo effect." In fact, "THE CRITICAL FACTOR IS OUR BELIEFS ABOUT WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO US [emphasis added]."

I read about a researcher, who was studying the placebo effect of depressed patients treated with drugs, psychotherapy, or a combination of both. After analyzing 39 studies, done between 1974 & 1995, he found that 50% of the drug effect is due to the placebo response.

Our bodies are hardwired to feel every emotion; as it does, our emotions show up as physical “symptoms.” When you cry it is your thoughts & feelings of happiness or sadness that set in motion a series of internal events in your body that result in tears. Your mind is affecting your biology. Similarly, your face may turn red if you are embarrassed. A pleasant thought can alter the rhythm of your heart & even raise the strength of your immune system.

Your biology can affect your thoughts & emotions. These range from hormonal changes to chemical changes in the brain, which can make a person feel emotionally high or low. Certain drugs alter brain chemistry in this manner, as do endorphins, which are the body’s own natural opiates.

The lesson here is the fact that there is a mind-body communication going both ways. A lot of research has been done on this.

A study by “the Institute of Heartmath showed that positive & negative thinking could affect the body’s immune system. Researchers monitored the amounts of salivary immunoglobulin A (s-lgA) after each person in the study thought ‘care & compassion’ or ‘anger & frustration.’ Salivary immunoglobulin A is part of the immune system found in the saliva that can neutralize the bacteria that enter your mouth, from your food. . . A large amount of it indicates a strong immune system, whereas a small amount indicates a weakened system.

Heartmath scientists found that ‘care & compassion’ produced a stronger immune system than ‘anger & frustration.’ In fact, they found that just 5 minutes of ‘care & compassion’ caused the immune system to be elevated for 5 hours, while 5 minutes of ‘anger & frustration’ depressed it for 5 hours. So, we can create positive states of health by thinking positively.” It’s the Thought That Counts, by David R. Hamilton, PhD.

The lesson to be learned from these examples is to examine our beliefs & to be mindful of our thoughts. Don Colbert, MD, in his book The Seven Pillars of Health, describes mindfulness as slowing down so that we do one activity at a time, giving our full awareness to both the activity at hand & to your inner experience of it, paying attention to what is happening to us moment by moment. This provides a powerful antidote to stress since it means letting go of any thought that is unrelated to the present moment & finding something to enjoy in the present moment.

He goes on to explain, “Nothing exemplifies mindfulness better than thankfulness & gratitude.”

". . . An ‘attitude of gratitude’ helps you take the focus off your situation & shifts it to the One who can work everything out for you. Hebrews 13 tells us to give the sacrifice of praise continually, not just when we feel like it, ‘the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name’ (verse 15). Paul said, ‘In everything give thanks [even in the midst of trials & tribulations]: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you’ I Thessalonians 5:18.")

Mary talked about finding books on the role she could assume with her medical team, with the disease, with the treatments, & with her family. She stated, “For the first time I was able to exercise some personal control over the illness. I was able to see my role as managing a total treatment program that included my medical team, my mind & my spirit.

(We know that God is in control of how things play out, but we are to make a plan of action, as we are told in Proverbs 16:3 “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, & your plans will succeed.” And in Proverbs 16:9 it says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”)

“I spent additional hours on the Internet where I studied & worked. I developed a fighting spirit. I fanned the flames of my will to live. . . There is no question in my mind that my self-education was a crucial part of the process of getting well.

(My fighting spirit is due, in part, to the fact that God hardwired my brain to be stubborn, but it also comes from my spiritual focus that I develop through my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is maintained through prayer, reading my Bible, searching for specific Scriptures to help specific situations, & by reading Christian spiritual growth books, written by trusted Christian authors. I also find that contemporary Christian music soothes my soul & helps me to praise, honor & worship God. All these things help me to keep God at the center of my life, as my friend, my guide, my counselor, my source of strength; it also keeps me mindful of the fact that He is in control, so that I consult Him when I have decisions to make. I rely on Him as I read educational research for discernment & insight, so that I am not lead astray, because some research is contradictory to what I’ve previously read & some is based on principles that are contradictory to my Christian beliefs. A combination of prayer & searching for credible sources helps me to uncover the truth. Philippians 1:9-10a “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more & more in knowledge & depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best.”

Self-education has corrected many misconceptions & helped me understand how this disease affects my body physically. It has helped me to know how my body has been designed, by God, to reverse the disease, if it is working effectively. Yes, I know everyone believes cancer is an incurable disease. However, I’ve now read enough to now know it is reversible by many different measures, besides the usual medical “standard of care”— surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, & hormone therapy forms of treatment. God can choose to spontaneously heal an individual, too. Those are glorious events, for which I praise God. However, I’ve discovered that there are thousands of cancer patients each year who are recovering from cancer or who have gone into remission by consistently following the strategies Greg Anderson lists & describes in his books. He didn’t invent them or base them on his singular experience; he’s interviewed thousands of cancer patients, who were told they were supposed to die but didn’t, to discover these common strategies utilized by thousands of survivors. These folks are the living proof that they work. It is from talking to them or their having filled out a questionnaire that he created the list of 8 strategies survivors have in common – they are incorporated into these journeys with the Cancer Conqueror.)

“Yet as helpful as all those things were, as important as the self-education process was, I always kept coming back to mind & spirit. It became apparent to me that mind & spirit were the key components of my treatment plan. They were also directly under my control. It led me to what I consider one of the single most powerful beliefs I had ever nurtured. I came to see that even though I had cancer, I was not cancer.

(This is a tricky one. You get very caught up in the disease, so that you almost feel as if it “owns” you. It’s like the statement in chapter 2: “I am in charge of my cancer. My cancer is not in charge of me.” You can’t let it totally consume who you are, even if it requires many dedicated hours of your day to fight it, or if you are sick or struggling with debilitating side effects from your treatment. In most cases, that is not a permanent state of affairs. Cancer is not who we are, it’s an illness we have. It’s so easy to get caught up in conversations with others about our disease, treatment & how we are tolerating both that we miss out on talking about those things we would have talked about if cancer was not a part of our lives. Other people don’t know how often we may have run through this same conversation. They mean well & are interested in us. Can we find creative ways to direct conversation to other things that are of interest to us, without ignoring the inquiries? I struggle with this. We need time to feel as if we are a “normal” human being, without cancer getting in the way.)

“. . . I was able to separate who I was as a person from what I had as a disease. I had control over my mind & spirit! And my mind & my spirit had cancer only if I allowed it.

(2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine powers to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments & every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, & we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” You see, we are always fighting a battle in our minds. Some thoughts have a real strong hold on us. My choice is to allow the Holy Spirit to have control over my mind. Why? Romans 8:6b “the mind controlled by the Spirit is life & peace.” This is how I am able to take those thoughts captive that have a grip on my mind. As an act of my will, I turn them over, surrender them to God. Romans 12:1-2 says, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy & pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test & approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing & perfect will.” My mind is a part of my body, which I freely give to God. I give myself as a “living sacrifice,” which means that who I am, as an individual, is not threatened. When I surrender myself to Him, he promises that I will be “transformed by the renewing of my mind.” That is pretty awesome. I will gain a new perspective, God’s perspective on my life & God’s purpose for me. When I see things His way, I will also understand that His will is good. He only wants what is best for me. It is pleasing; the better I understand it the more enthusiastically I will accept it. I will also see that it is perfect, in that it makes provision for every area of my life. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, & where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”)

“Who I was as a person was much more than what I had as a disease.”

Mary explained her misinformed belief that cancer cells were eating away at the inside of her body. The Cancer Conqueror corrected this false belief. “Cancer cells don’t eat other cells. Cancer cells are weak & confused cells . . . the cells themselves are not intelligent. They don’t make up a bodily organ. Instead, they have gone mad. They are confused.”

Mary pointed out “another important belief brings a new perspective to our treatment. Right in our own bodies is the mortal enemy of cancer cells, our own immune system.” She made clear that the surgeons, the radiation, or the chemotherapy & other treatments actually “help the body’s immune system heal itself – from within! The medical team plays a supporting role to the body’s own healing power!”

(In the same way that the medial team plays a supporting role in the healing of a broken bone, they do so in illnesses that require other forms of treatment. The doctor who sets a broken bone or a surgeon who places metal rods, pins, &/or screws in it does not heal it; he or she does play a major role in HOW it heals though. I have a long rod, a pin & 5 screws in my left femur, & I have a long rod, a pin & 4 screws in my right femur, as a result of my auto accident, in 1999. I don’t want to think of how they would have healed without the surgeon’s supporting role. I certainly don’t believe I would be able to walk. Even with the surgery & implanting all that hardware, the surgeon predicted that I probably wouldn’t ever walk. Well, he was wrong. Praise God! Although the surgeon didn’t heal my legs, he certainly did play a supporting role! In the same way, my physical therapists played a role in helping me rehabilitate my legs so that I could walk. I shared personal responsibility in following through with following the doctor’s orders & with doing the physical therapist’s prescribed movements & exercises to rehabilitate my legs. The time spent with the physical therapist was not sufficient to do this. The actual healing process took place naturally, even though it took a year before I could walk without any assistance at all. In addition, the food I ate & the calcium supplements I took played a supporting role in providing fuel for my body to produce the chemicals God designed it to produce to enable the natural healing process to occur in my bones & connecting tissues. This is how God designed our bodies. Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully & wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

As more has been learned about how our bodies work, forms of treatment have changed to help this process to be more efficient, so that recovery is more complete. I believe God helps scientists, researchers, biologists, & physicians to discover new medical information/wisdom so that they are able to better serve & help patients, in their supporting role. Proverbs 2:6 “For the Lord gives wisdom, & from his mouth come knowledge & understanding.” This kind of revelation is at God’s discretion. Think of how many diseases have been wiped out because cures have been “discovered.” Who is ultimately responsible for these “cures” & their “discoveries?” Of course, it’s God!

Our body’s immune system & hormonal system produce many chemicals that are critical in the healing process. To work effectively, they must be supported by optimal nutrition. The brain is the control center that orchestrates the different systems of the body; so, it needs proper nourishment, rest, oxygen, etc. There are multiple connections between the body, mind & spirit. In terms of the physical body, God designed it with AMAZING capabilities. We can work with or against those capabilities. The medical team is attempting to work with them, to support them.

I am absolutely convinced that the hundreds of people who prayed for me throughout my recovery played a very large supporting role, as well!! Praise God!!)

Mary went on. “The Cancer Conqueror taught me that cancer has significant psychological, emotional & spiritual components. We can understand more about these aspects by looking at stress & the way we handle it. The important thing to realize is that mismanaged stress can lead to both a physical & a psychological reaction that primes the body to respond. This priming is a mental phenomenon. If we mentally respond by suppressing or over-expressing, we give the body confusing signals. The result is that our immune systems become compromised & less effective in warding off potential cancer cells, [bacteria, or viruses].

“These essentials are documented in a growing field combining science & psychology called psychoneuroimmunology [PNI]. It’s a scientific discipline that recognizes mind & spirit do affect cellular biology. Thoughts of fear, anger, & guilt can lead to sickness on more levels than just the physical. Yet thoughts of love, joy, & peace lead to health & well-being.

(Nehemiah 8:10d “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Proverbs 14:30a “A heart at peace gives life to the body.”)
The man asked, “Does this all mean that I gave myself cancer?”
“No, No!” said Mary. “That’s much too rigid a view. You didn’t give yourself cancer. However, the inability to handle stress constructively, to resolve conflicts creatively, & to manage anxieties effectively may contribute to the beginning of illness. Of course, it wasn’t a conscious decision.

(This also means that another person cannot GIVE or CAUSE you to get cancer. There is no way we can know for which individuals this is a contributing factor to the development of cancer. We need to learn to learn to manage stressful situations, to deal with the emotional & interpersonal conflicts, as well as the emotional issues that accompany them, in order to be mentally & emotionally healthier, without doing this out of fear that it might be causing us to develop cancer. That may only add to our stress rather than decrease it. If it’s an eye-opener that motivates us to take steps to learn to better manage those things that cause us to become anxious or stressed, then it is a positive stressor.)

“If you recognize that you may have contributed to your illness, then you must also believe that you have the power to contribute to your recovery. The psychological & spiritual components can work either for us or against us. The choice is ours.”

(Of course, there are factors, besides resolving conflicts, to consider that may have contributed to your cancer. Without realizing it, you made lifestyle choices, in ignorance to their potential contribution to the development of cancer, which you now know may be contributing factors. You now have the opportunity to change or modify these choices because you NOW know they may be contributing factors. In this way, you are contributing to your recovery.

One example is the fact the cancer cells are anaerobic while healthy cells are aerobic, meaning they need oxygen. Cancer hates well-oxygenated tissues. For this reason, breathing deeply &/or getting regular exercise that brings our heart rate up, to our target heart rate, so that we oxygenate our body’s tissues & kill cancer cells. If you have been physically inactive, including a routine exercise program in your weekly schedule is a change you can make that is good for your healthy cells, helps you psychologically, & kills cancer cells!! How’s that for contributing to your recovery?

It was after I was required to change my eating habits that I learned how my previous diet contributed to the growth of my cancer, as well as other health issues. The initial adjustment was very difficult, as I describe in chapter 13 of "My Story," but it’s been worth it all for the benefits of improved health I now enjoy, as well as the continual positive test results. Praise God!! I know this is part of the plan He’s called me to use in fighting my cancer.

Of course, I have written much about the spiritual aspect of my spiritual journey & will write much more. This is the most important component of the journey. It benefits my health & emotional well-being in more ways than I can list here.)

Mary then explained, “Behind all these statements lies a revolutionary assumption that needs to be understood & believed at a deep level. The assumption is this – cancer is a process.

(This whole experience is a process. You continue to learn & grow as the days, weeks, & months go by. With each new step, each test, each test result, new information, every up & down, every new person you meet along the way, you continue to learn & to grow in many dimensions. The ways in which you grow depend on your perspective on life, on the disease, on God. These choices are yours to make. I cannot make them for you. I can only tell you what my perspectives are & how they are working successfully for me. It is my hope that what I share will inspire others to make positive changes in their lives, their thinking, their perspectives, & to trust God as they walk this journey.)

Of course, the man did not know exactly what Mary meant by this statement. She explained that “conventional medical wisdom teaches us that cancer is a thing . . . a physical condition . . . a noun.” While this is true, she says “it is also rather shallow.”

Mary asked the man to examine his cancer experience beyond the obvious appearances. She asked him to open his mind “to the full dimensions of the idea that cancer is more than a physical condition. Cancer is not a disease of which you are a victim. It is a process which you can master.

“The medical community uses cancer as a noun. I encourage you to make cancer into a verb, an action verb! I challenge you to start to think, see, & feel yourself as ‘cancering.’

“The verb cancering shifts our focus away from a disease we have & brings our attention to the process we are going through.

“The evidence is becoming overwhelming. Lifestyle is the key to preventing as well as reversing cancer.

“Cancer doesn’t just happen to us. [About 5% of cancers are the result of genetic predisposition. Another small percentage is the result of prolonged exposure to environmental carcinogens.] It can spring from inner disharmony, physical or emotional or spiritual. And it has two implications. One is responsibility, at least subconsciously, for contributing to the onset of illness. But the 2nd implication is opportunity. Cancer is a reversible disease, & there are patients who happily experience reversal every day. Our central task in recovery is to choose harmony at the level of mind & spirit. Only then can we help our bodies regenerate & achieve physical harmony. This is truly conquering cancer. And in conquering, we may even cure it.

(Have you found peace between what you know & believe in your head & what your heart believes, or is there a disconnect [disharmony]? As long as there is unrest, your body does not have the best conditions for efficiently carrying on its job of ridding your body of cancer cells.

Don Colbert, MD describes how stress affects our lives in his book, The Seven Pillars of Health.
“Good stress is healthy, such as a wedding or a promotion. Stress is also our body’s natural reaction to a threat or perceived threat. It causes a sudden release of adrenaline & other hormones that cause your blood pressure to go up, your heart to beat faster, & your lungs to take in more air among other physiologic events. These stress hormones give you extra strength & mental acuity for a few moments, & they empower you to either fight or flee.

“But when the stress response occurs too frequently or goes on long term, those stress hormones that were meant to save your life begin to actually harm you. They can leave you feeling depressed, anxious, angry, with low sex drive, & predisposed to obesity, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, & all kinds of illnesses. The same hormones that save your life in an emergency can actually begin to destroy your health.

“In June 2005, the Wall Street Journal devoted an entire section of their newspaper to how to live longer. The front page article of the section said, ‘Increasingly, researchers are viewing stress – how much stress we face in a lifetime, & how well we cope with it – as one of the most significant factors for predicting how well we age.’ The article concluded that stress ‘kills’ people as much or more than poor health habits like smoking, drinking alcohol, or not exercising.

“Stress is not just a mental problem; it’s the cause of many diseases & maladies . . . Many recent studies have demonstrated this. The renowned Nun Study has shown that elevated stress levels inhibit & deteriorate the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with memory & learning. A smaller hippocampus is a sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

“A long-term study at the University of London showed that chronic unmanaged mental stress was 6 times more predictive of cancer & heart disease than cigarette smoking, high cholesterol levels, & elevated blood pressure. In a Mayo Clinic study of people with heart disease, psychological stress was the strongest predictor of future cardiac events.

“In a 10-year study, people who were not able to manage their stress effectively had a 40 percent higher death rate than those who were ‘unstressed.’

“Excessive stress long term can make you obese & unhealthy. In response to long-term stress, the hormone cortisol rises, which can cause blood pressure to rise, can cause the release of fats & sugar in the bloodstream, & may cause weight gain, elevated triglycerides, high cholesterol, & blood sugar. Cortisol will save your life if you are a POW or experiencing famine, because it slows your metabolic rate & helps to preserve your fat stores. But most of us aren’t POW’s or experiencing famine, & so the high cortisol levels usually lead to weight gain. . .

“Excessive stress can predispose a person to develop or aggravate every conceivable affliction. Clearly, disease & illness are often the shrapnel wounds from stress.”

This is not the time to merely read this information & mentally agree with it & then just set it aside. You now have the opportunity to look at your own life to determine how you handle stress. Do you need to do some work on learning how to effectively manage it better? Do you need help to learn how to rely on God to help you when you are faced with stressful situations?)

“Cancer is a message to change. . . It is a warning for us to change. The Cancer Conqueror calls this change resolve. When we resolve those areas in our lives where there is unrest, where there is anxiety, we make changes that will nurture love, joy & peace. That’s truly conquering cancer. The body will often respond physically to renewed feelings of hope. The mind’s resolution of conflicts is often followed by the body’s resolution of disease. This is true because body, mind, & spirit work together as one system.

(My journey with cancer has brought many changes into my life. I will admit that I did not welcome all of them, at first. However, I can now say that the journey has been a message to make changes in my life. Those changes have been to make improvements where I was falling short of my own goals I had set for my life a very long time ago. This experience has been a reminder to work on putting my priorities back in order. This is still a work in progress.

It has helped me in making additional progress in terms of overcoming the effects of the permanent brain damage that I continue to struggle to find ways to work around. Praise God!!

Faith doesn’t necessarily make things easy, but is does make all things possible! Praise God!!

I think it’s worth repeating the devotion, from the Foundation for Cancer Research & Wellness, I reprinted in Chapter 2. The verse of the day is James 1:2, but I think it’s important to put it in context with verses 3 & 4 also: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature & complete, not lacking anything.”

“Don't mistake what this passage means. No one expects you to be happy about your difficulties. The word happy comes from the word 'happenstance,' meaning our feelings depend on what happens to us. But we are expected to strive for joy. Joy is a sense of well-being, a sense of security, a sense of peace, no matter what happens to us. Joy is the feeling we want to achieve. Joy is feeling secure and content in every situation, in every challenge and in every way, knowing that God is taking care of us even in the most difficult of days.”

This shines a whole different light on this verse & passage. It doesn’t say we are to be happy about our trials/our cancer; it says we can strive to find joy, despite the fact that we have trials/cancer. This comes from our perception of the situation. Verses 3 & 4 give us the correct perspective we are to have about our trials. They are intended to help us to learn perseverance & to help us to mature. We will be better off for having gone through them. Realize that God meets our needs as we endure the trials. Psalm 46:1-3 “God is our refuge & strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way & the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar & foam & the mountains quake with their surging.”

This perspective takes nurturing, on a regular basis. Maintaining my personal relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer & reading the Bible is vital to this process. I also find that listening to contemporary Christian music helps to focus my mind, as the lyrics fill my mind & lift my heart in worship & praise to God.)
“Choose to become a cancer conqueror!
“In a real sense, what you believe about this journey is what you’ll experience. You will choose your beliefs. Make sure you do not accept hand-me-down beliefs that lead to despair. Make certain that your beliefs empower you, that they serve you well.
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After the visit is a section Greg Anderson inserts titled:
Believe: Recovering a Sense of the Possible
“Beliefs create actions. Actions create results. Results confirm beliefs. This is how self-fulfilling prophecies become reality.

“It amazes me how many cancer patients do not believe they can get well. Think of a bell-shaped curve; I have observed that at the one end [the left “tail”], 10 to 15 percent of patients actually welcome cancer & consider it an honorable way to die. In the middle of the curve, 70 to 80 percent of patients seem to just go along, dutifully fulfilling their passive role assigned by the doctor. At the far end [the right “tail”] of the curve is another 10 to 15 percent. These are the cancer conquerors. The most profound difference . . . is the set of underlying beliefs this group brings to the process.” Greg Anderson 1998 PBS television special, Creating Incredible Wellness

“Beliefs, & the resulting attitudes & expectations, constantly contribute to actual experience in all areas of life, including the experience of cancer. . . Beliefs can be chosen, but we seldom consciously choose them."

I would like to believe that many under the bell-shaped curve, which Anderson describes above, can be inspired to shift to the right, to become Cancer Conquerors, so the curve is skewed in favor of more than 10 to 15 percent Cancer Conquerors.

In closing this chapter, let me share another devotion from The Foundation for Cancer Research & Wellness
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

When God's people break under the burden of illness and human limitation, over and over again, God reaches out to revive and renew us. In all these ways and countless more, God intercedes, over and over again, to help, to save, to restore and revive us making us more than conquerors over all that rises up to bring us down. In God cancer cannot, will not, destroy us. It may threaten. But it shall not break us because God is stronger than any disease we can know.
PRAISE GOD!!!!