Cancer Resilience Quotes

My father enabled me to really believe in myself. And yet I've heard very similar stories - from many, many people. It's the way he approached his life. The way he approached his life - he was the eternal optimist. He was the most optimistic person that I've ever known. Even in the face of this diagnosis with cancer, he was filled with optimism about what he could do and what he could accomplish.

Cancer taught my family that my mom is much stronger than we ever thought. Faced with a devastating diagnosis, she just kept going and living - never complaining.

I will be a role model for cancer patients for the rest of my life. But you know what? When I was getting chemo, those people inspired me.

When I wake up in the morning, I don't say, 'Oh, I have cancer. I say 'Another day. How you feeling? Good? Good.'

People talk about the courage of cancer patients, and I do not deny that courage. I had been poked and stabbed and poisoned for years, and still I trod on. But make no mistake: In that moment, I would have been very, very happy to die.

Working out is my way of saying to cancer, 'You're trying to invade my body; you're trying to take me away from my daughters, but I'm stronger than you. And I'm going to hit harder than you.'

Breast Cancer is not necessarily a death sentence, stay strong and centered and be involved in all aspects of your treatment.

When they told me I had cancer - a very rare form called appendiceal cancer - I was shocked. But I went straight into battle mode. Every morning, I'd wake up and have an internal conversation with cancer. 'All right, dude,' I'd tell it, 'go ahead and hit me. But I'm going to hit you back even harder.'

I would say the number one thing with cancer is not to let it scare you because when you are afraid, it destroys your immune system.

After cancer, I ain't scared of nothing.

I'm the exact same person I was before (cancer). I'm still shallow, I still love clothes, I still want to talk fashion, I still want to gossip, so lay it on me.

When you fight something like cancer, you not dealing with a person that looks at where you come from or what's your background or what race you are or what ethnicity or whatever. Whatever your culture is, it doesn't care about that. It doesn't sleep - it doesn't get tired - so if you make it about yourself, you're going to fail every time.

I had throat cancer, and I had to have radiation treatments, and I couldn't sing for a long time; and this was in '97. I had 28 radiation treatments. I didn't die, thank God.

It may look like the difficulty is going to defeat you. But you need to keep telling yourself, "This sickness can't take my life." "This cancer can't defeat me." "No bad break, no disappointment, no accident can shorten one second of my divine destiny."

Cancer is a word, not a sentence.

I've had every chemo in the alphabet, most of them more than once. Some of them that aren't even in the alphabet, they're just numbers - clinical trials. But I bet if you added all those up, it would have to be like 60- or 70-something. I've had 23 bone marrow aspirations. Having one isn't fun and I've had 23. So that's been tough.

[My mom] had this amazing attitude in the face of everything, including when she got cancer.

My philosophy, don't let cancer ruin your life. You get up every day and use what you have and what time you have left.

Cancer has changed, and so have I. Life goes on, even becomes normal again. I refused to let cancer wreck my party. There are just too many cool things to do and plan and live for.

I used to visit kids with cancer all the time. Now I'm in the club. I understand what's happening to these little kids with brain cancer, and I ask myself, 'How do they make it through the day?' So you see a little 5-year-old and you say, 'If she can do it, I can suck it up.'

Since the fright of breast cancer hit our family, I have been surprised by how many people are dealing with breast cancer in their own family or with a loved one. One friend bluntly told me that she has been through it with her sister, her mom, and her grandmother, and all are healthy and mentally stronger because of the disease.

Mum never made an excuse, even when she had cancer and had a lot on her plate. You have to have huge admiration for the way she brought us up.

I make myself have energy. It's stubbornness in the face of cancer.

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don't be discouraged that my own journey hasn't gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope.

It seems everybody has been somehow affected by cancer, either through a relative or a close friend or somewhere, and they know how devastating cancer can be. And they see me, and I refuse to let it affect how I live and what I do.