Your Stories: Conquering Cancer

As a little girl, Kenedi loves eating ice cream , draw ing stories about her family's chickens , and playing with her sister. But at age 7 , after feeling sick for some time, a cancer diagnosis upended Kenedi 's life. Despite being the top disease-related cause of death for children, pediatric cancers are still considered rare. As with most rare diseases, childhood cancer receive s far less resear...

Imagine you—or a loved one—receives a cancer diagnosis. Overnight, you find yourself trying to become an oncology expert, desperately looking for information about options. You stumble across a research paper that looks promising—if you could make sense of all the science-speak.  In this episode of Your Stories , host and cancer survivor Brenda Brody is joined by Dr. Jyoti Patel. Together, they un...

For patients with oral cancer s , treatment is often just the beginning of their journey . Even after they emerge cancer-free, many still face a long journey to recovery and restored quality of life As a maxillofacial surgeon and oncologist, Dr. Chi Viet concentr ates heavily on helping her patients to not only conquer this rare cancer , but to more easily and effectively manage their pain along t...

NBC journalist Craig Melvin 's 43-year-old brother, Lawrence Meadows, passed away from colorectal cancer in 2020. Since then, Craig has made it his mission to increase public awareness and raise support for colorectal cancer research . Along with two-time Conquer Cancer grant recipient and colorectal oncologist Dr. Kimmie Ng, Craig joins this episode of our Your Stories podcast to emphasize the cr...

Support communities for people conquering cancer form a critical bridge between the worlds of social work and oncology and offer immense benefits for people transitioning from patient to survivor. Stephanie Stern, a licensed professional counselor, support group facilitator, and program director at a nonprofit community organization, helps people to more effectively manage the mixed emotions that...

At just 19 years old, Anya was diagnosed with Erdheim -Chester disease (ECD), an extremely rare and incurable blood cancer . After three years of unsuccessful treatments, Anya was quickly running out of options . In this episode of our Your Stories podcast , Anya's mother, Colleen, and one of Anya's oncologists, Conquer Cancer-funded researcher Dr. Jithma Abeykoon, discuss the complexities of unco...

For some families, cancer is in their genes. But this didn't stop Hattie Sherman from conquering it. Hattie is a third-generation survivor of hereditary breast cancer, with her mother, Molly, and grandmother having experienced the diagnosis as well. Fortunately, as cancer research continue s to advance , treatments are vastly improving for each generation of patients. In this episode, Hattie, Moll...

In 2022, one of our most popular Your Stories episodes was the   conversation featuring   Dr. Karen Winkfield, who is a Biden -appointed member of the National Cancer Advisory Board and one of the country's leading experts in advancing health equity. W e are re-releasing this episode to highlight the lasting importance of addressing health disparities and working to eradicate structural racism in...

Lillian Kreppel had to advocate for herself and seek a second opinion before receiving a delayed diagnosis : HPV-related stage II anal cancer . During treatment, she found stark limitations in HPV information , including lack of public awareness and patient education, inadequate guidelines for cancer screening, and a lot of HPV-related social stigma. Now a survivor, Lillian leads the HPV Cancers A...

Less than 1% of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) – the most aggressive type of brain cancer – live longer than a decade . But Molly is one of those rare survivors. Her best friend, Martha, and Martha's sister, Conquer Cancer board member Dr. Amy Peterson , fiercely supported Molly every step of the way. Molly tells Your Stories host , Dr. Mark Lewis , how she navigated her exp...

When Liz Beisel's late father , Ted Beisel , passed away in 2021 from pancreatic cancer , she partnered with Swim Across America to help fund a Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award. Dr. Peter Yu, an early-career oncologist and pancreatic cancer researcher, received this grant in 2022. This helped launch his promising research project to improv e treatment and care for patients with pancreatic c...

Dr. Shanu Modi led DESTINY-Breast04, a groundbreaking study that resulted in FDA approv al of a promising treatment that can improve survival for nearly 50% of all patients with metastatic breast cancer today. This Conquer Cancer grant recipient talk s about the importance of patient participation in clinical trials, the necessity of donor -funded research , and the bright future of breast cancer...

Imagine yourself or a loved one being diagnosed with cancer by a doctor who doesn't speak your language. How do you understand what's happening, what treatment options are, or how to make informed health care decisions? Before Dr. Jenny Ruiz became a pediatric oncologist, her first experience with kids and cancer came when a younger cousin was diagnosed with leukemia. Dr. Ruiz became a translator...

In 2017, Carly Flumer was a hospital primary care worker and health communication student in her mid- 20s when a few wellness exams revealed a lump in her throat. Follow-up scans forever transformed her young adult life: She was diagnosed with stage I papillary thyroid cancer at 27. What followed, even as her scans showed no evidence of disease, was the beginning of a lifetime as a patient. Adoles...

Mai had dreamed of being pregnant and having a child, but for years she knew something was off with her body — pain, fatigue, abnormal bleeding, irregular menstruation. It took follow-up appointments, second opinions, and her refusal to stop until she had an answer. Eventually, Mai received a diagnosis: ovarian cancer. Mai was only 26 when she was diagnosed. She survived, and her dream of becoming...

A Pap smear during pregnancy revealed Bethany Hart had a rare and aggressive type of cervical cancer. Her baby, a girl she and her husband named Hallie, was born via c-section, but did not survive. "I remember, vividly, the quiet, the shock … I will never forget that feeling," said Bethany, who was told treatment would leave her unable to give birth to children. "Those are very big things to wrap...

Mark Crafts – who passed away in 2022 after living with stage IV colorectal cancer for more than four years – experienced an excruciating journey he describes as "climbing Cancer Mountain." "I just envision that I am on this long path that goes up and up and up," said Mark, who shared his experiences with Conquer Cancer since the beginning of his diagnosis. An avid cyclist, Mark spent much of his...

Jana Hirsch's mom died from cancer when she was a little girl, so she knows all too well the feelings of pain and loss her 11-year-old daughter, Nika is enduring. Nika's dad, Rico, died from cancer last year. In this Your Stories podcast, Jana offers advice for helping children mourn and Nika shares how helping others keeps her dad's memory alive. 

In 2022, one of our most popular Your Stories episodes was the conversation featuring Karen Winkfield, MD, PhD, who is a Biden-appointed member of the National Cancer Advisory Board and one of the country's leading experts in advancing health equity. We're re-releasing this episode to highlight the lasting importance of addressing health disparities and working to eradicate structural racism in ca...

Emmy award-winning journalist Loriana Hernadez-Aldama takes you behind the scenes of her incredible and emotional story surviving leukemia and then breast cancer. Loriana believes being "prehabilitated" helped her take on treatment, and she challenges you to be ready in case you are faced with an unexpected diagnosis or recurrence. 

Dr. Nathalie McKenzie is a global caregiver, an innovative scientist, and an advocate for equitable care whose patients celebrate her compassion and determination. She is also a breast cancer survivor who knows firsthand how Research Conquers Cancer ®. In the latest  Your Stories  podcast, meet one of the many researchers Conquer Cancer supports as she shares her thoughts on the greatest needs in ...

Kristin and Dr. Will Flanary are the First Couple of Comedy. Will – aka @DGlaucomflecken on the internet and comedy stages, aka Dr. Flannery to his optometry patients, and aka Dad to the two kids he shares with  Kristin -  aka  @LadyGlaucomflecken   - is  a two-time testicular cancer survivor; he also survived cardiac arrest – all before age 35 .

The scariest call of Brenda Brody's life came on Halloween in 2012: She had breast cancer. Though always an out-going, positive person, the fear of what might follow as she set out to survive cancer haunted the single mom and business owner. Brenda tells Dr. Mark Lewis how she endured the mental anguish of treatment, the advice she gives new patients, and why she shares her story to help others.

In the latest Your Stories podcast, 12-year-old Cain and his mom, Tawny share with host Dr. Mark Lewis how their family maintains hope and what others can do to help families who are conquering cancer together.

On Twitter, Mark Lewis, MD, cleverly offers bits of info on science and his own life as a patient with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) cancer syndrome. In his attempt to remove any shame some people feel for having cancer or any hereditary disease, Dr. Lewis offers "signpost to things that are reliable and that are meaningful" while providing a "very careful distinction between hope and...