One of my many volunteer activities is serving on the board of directors of a local cancer survivor’s group.  The group offers many programs and services to local cancer survivors including support groups, yoga classes and an annual conference.  All of these activities are free.  Pretty cool, huh? 

I did not know Tim Russert but like millions of Americans, I felt like I did.  He was man who treated everyone who appeared on his show equally.  Each guest was treated with respect regardless of where they were on the political spectrum.  He was man who spoke with deep affection for his family.  He wrote a moving tribute to his father and spoke with equal fondness for his son.  In a town well known for its rampant cynicism

That is the day we found out my husband had cancer. We had a long weekend to wait for the pathology report and despite everyone telling me he would be fine, my gut told me he had cancer. The World According to Garp had a great word—undertoad—which was coined by one of the young characters as a word for dread. I never really knew what that would feel like until I had 4 days to ponder a cancer diagnosis. Ponder telling our daughters who were 6 and 8 that their beloved dad was sick. Consider whether we would get to celebrate a 20th anniversary.

Recently, a great deal of attention has been paid to a pancreatic cancer patient who is living his final days on his own terms and challenging others to focus on what matters in life. I am not going to attempt that here but I want to challenge my readers to ponder this question: What three characteristics do you hope to pass onto your children?

Colorectal cancer awareness month has drawn to a close and I hope you learned a bit more about the disease from this blog.  Today, I want to list a few practical suggestions when deciding how to support a family living with cancer.  I am not going to include every possible way to help as that would take hours and I doubt I am that interesting.  But many people tried to help us when we were in the midst of the fight and some of them were at a loss as t