Getting and keeping my immunity became very important to me. For I needed to take care of myself and my family. No one else was worried about me.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I hadn't stopped fearing the chance of passing on an illness, but that fear had become balanced by the observation that being ill wasn't the same as being beaten.
Having cancer empowered me to take more risks. I knew beating cancer was going to shape me, but it wasn't going to be all of me.
I was concerned about filling my life up with something important to me. To me, it was just necessary.
There's a cultural expectation that everyone will be immunized, in part to protect the entire population. When people refuse that expectation, they're indulging in a certain kind of political or social immunity.
My cancer scare changed my life. I'm grateful for every new, healthy day I have. It has helped me prioritize my life.
If you have a vaccine or an antidote that people can benefit from, you're not going to want to keep it to yourself. You're going to want to spread that wisdom or whatever to as many people as you can, so everybody can benefit from it.
No one plans to get sick or hurt - I certainly didn't - but most people will need medical care at some point in their lives.
That is why it is so important not only to have excellent treatment but also to try to get back the immune defense, because there you have a natural defense that takes place everywhere.
When I thought about having the greatest impact with my life, I thought about all the times people lose loved ones because diseases weren't detected early enough. I thought, 'I can play a role there.'
I believe that all the important people in my life prior to 1982 were victimized by my illness.