Twelve years ago, our youngest son was diagnosed with leukemia and underwent 2.5 years of grueling treatments. Four years later, the cancer aggressively returned and had to be eradicated through a bone marrow transplant.
During our son’s treatments, my wife consistently wrote updates on him through a blog on CaringBridge. After he had the transplant, someone suggested that it might be useful for me (as a father and a man) to memorialize my experiences. I have done so in this book.
The book focuses on how both our son and family got through cancer-- twice. It also sheds much-needed light on pediatric cancer, bone marrow transplants, and the ongoing need for more research and funding to be provided to these areas.
No one likes to talk about cancer. People get even more uncomfortable and squeamish discussing childhood cancer. I wrote this book with an aim: “Get Comfortable with the Uncomfortable”.
Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children ages 1 thru 19. I know it’s difficult to see children who are sick and bald, but they (and cancer) cannot be ignored simply because it’s uneasy for us.
This book was written to put “uncomfortable” out on the table. We need to discuss childhood cancer. We need to generate more awareness of it. We need to establish more funding for it. We need to find more and better ways to destroy it.
Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at Columbia University in New York, to continue research and development of Doctor Satwani’s work for pediatric cancer patients in India, and to the Lil’ Bravest Foundation in Washington Heights, NY