The News Dear friends and loved ones, I want to share that it appears Cancer may have returned to my life.  I am also reaching out to you because, as difficult as this is for me, I want to ask you for what I call, “The Favor.” For those who do not know, 5 years ago I received a serious Stage-3 cancer diagnosis. This news came at a turbulent time when I was moving through several life-changing events. For many reasons, I never felt comfortable opening up, showing vulnerability, or asking people for support.  I largely moved through these difficult life experiences alone, because ..read more

Enjoy this Special Guest Post to the OCJ Blog! Introduction Hi OCJ Podcast Listeners and Article Readers! I welcome you to read this “Guest Post” from cancer survivor Tim Schartung. His article below reflects on his life and things within all of our lives that can be examples and analogies for us as we move through our cancer experience. The below is a reprint of a post he wrote on a private social media group that supports people with head and neck cancer. He speaks specifically about his experience, but his perseverance and his outlook provides good takeaways for us all. Thank you Tim for sh ..read more

A Cancer Patient and OCJ Podcast Listener Reaches Out About ‘Awkward Situations’ I recently received a message from a cancer patient who had just completed treatments.  In the message, the sender commented on the awkward reactions they had received from people that 1) they had not seen for a while, and 2) the friend didn’t know about the patient’s recent cancer experience.  Here is the response I sent them with a story on the lighter side of these encounters:   My Reply Great to hear from you!   I think we all have had some awkward conversations with peo ..read more

The Person Cared For Becomes the Caregiver Here is the super touching story of snowboarding legend Shaun White’s Physical Therapist Dr. Esther Lee, who despite her diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer, accompanied him to the Winter Olympics to cheer him on, and provide the treatments she could. Below are links to 1 article and 1 video, each of which tells a different part of this tender story. The narrative starts by highlighting the love and support that Dr. Lee has been giving to Shaun during his appearance at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and what has proven to be an emotion-fille ..read more

On March 23, 2018, I marked the one-year anniversary of the double Radical Dissection surgeries that started my cancer treatment odyssey. After making it through 7-weeks of a daily radiation regimen, additional surgeries, and some touch-and-go moments that year, I took the opportunity on that anniversary date to post an update on my status to my friends on Facebook. In that initial anniversary post, I share more than just the progress of my treatments (which was positive). I also expressed my gratitude for the lessons I learned and the love I received throughout that first year of my cancer jo ..read more

Hello Friends, My name is Bruce Watkins and I am the host of the Our Cancer Journey Podcast.  We are excited to announce that we have just published our podcast’s Official Facebook Page!    We will post announcements about our newly published podcast episodes here, as well as Our Cancer Journey (OCJ) news and other interesting info  We will also tease fun shows we have coming up, and let you know if new items are posted on our webpage. CLICK HERE: To Visit the OUR CANCER JOURNEY PODCAST Facebook Page Part of Our Journey After a multi-year journey through the initi ..read more