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Sunday, July 20, 2008
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Moving Ahead

We hope that this guide has given you ideas and information you can use-now and in the future. We encourage you to write to us about your own ideas and experiences. We plan to update Facing Forward as needed to include new advice, research findings, and relevant changes in laws or social policies.

In compiling this guide, we have heard from cancer survivors with many points of view. A common thread was respect for their fellow survivors and a recognition that some of the changes in their lives have been positive ones.

One survivor, Bill, described it like this:
"Cancer survivorship can be a catalyst for spiritual awakening, providing life with depth and poignancy. Survivors themselves are often gutsy and assertive, and they dare to take chances. They are often optimistic, independent-minded, and compassionate and have elevated self-esteem and pride...New attitudes towards work, pleasure, and relationships develop with utmost clarity, while superficial distractions and frivolous people are filtered out... [Survivors] share a new understanding of time, a sense of needing to make every minute count."

National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship President (1989-90) Fitzhugh Mullan has compared cancer survivorship to crossing a river and starting a new life on the other bank-with no maps or trails to show the way. We hope that Facing Forward offers some useful signposts for your unique journey and helps you, in Mullan's words, " [civilize the new land] to make life there tolerable, and even good."


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