“I will not be a passenger on the train. I want to drive the
locomotive.”
-Conchita O’Kane
from New Beginnings: The Triumphs of 120 Cancer Survivors
Bill Aron: Photographer, Storyteller
“All my life I’ve been interested in how people present themselves and interact with each other, including the camera.”
Bill received his first camera, a Brownie Hawkeye, at age 12. His strength, he says are capturing people.
“I am a people photographer.”
And in his book New Beginnings: The Triumphs of 120 Cancer Survivors Bill Aron tells the stories of parents, patients, pain, hope, despair and spirituality that plumb the very soul of humanity. Whether one has cancer or not, the stories in this book provide a hope filled path for living.
Bill Aron has a background in both sociology and photography, and the combination resonates in this book. The stories, he says, are his teachers:
“They all became my teachers…
They helped me articulate my feelings…
They helped me learn to move forward.”
Bill was diagnosed with an aggressive prostate cancer. In a quest for understanding and perhaps some answers, he turned to the stories of others. Would you be a part of my book, he asked. “To my surprise,” he says, “they all said we’d love to be a part of my project.”
Here are some the people from Bill’s book New Beginnings, The Stories of 120 Cancer Survivors. Excerpts from their stories are available to Bump II subscribers, along with the second part of the podcast:
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- Tiffany Graley
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- Maneh Nazarian
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- Stephanie Larue
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- Robert Lam
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- Rabbi Ed Feinstein
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- Aurora Avila
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- Kevin Carlberg
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- Sophia Colby
Some excerpts from Bill’s book, New Beginnings:
“Cancer gave me a sense of mortality. I am not nearly as concerned about material things. I also don’t think about aging anymore…I think about today and I don’t take anything for granted,”
-Robert Crozier
Mostly I’ve learned that if you want to do something, don’t be afraid…just do it.
-Betsy Leder
“I know one thing for sure…I’m willing to jump. I want to fly.”
-Bill Kavanagh
“We all have a limited time on earth, so we should make it the most meaningful and enjoy it.”
-Haim Geffen
“It took facing death to learn to live.”
-Troy Blakely
“I don’t want to miss anything that is placed in front of me.”
-Kate Schmidt
“What you learn from an experience like this is inexpressible. It’s the deepest message and meaning of life.”
-David Wolfe
“It’s about joy, about living our soul’s purpose, and about contributing to the greater good. I live every moment with that in mind.”
-Rebecca Gifford
Bump In The Road:
Bill Aron
Want The Rest of the Story?
Bill Aron: One Hundred Twenty Stories
From Bill’s book, are the following life affirming excerpts of hope and transformation:
Aurora Avila from Bill Aron’s Book New Beginnings
Aurora Avila
Endoscopy Technician, Surgical Center Physician’s Assistant
Age at diagnosis, 31
Breast cancer, 2005
“Cancer forced me together to know myself deeply, and it forced a spiritual growth that I had never imagined or expected. When you are looking at yourself in the mirror, completely nude without even a strand of hair on your head, you have no choice but to see the real you.
After going through something like this, there is never a “normal” again. There is only a “better”. It would be easier to have a normal life, but I don’t think I would ever want that. I call it an awakening. Why would I want to go back to sleep?”
Below, for Bump II members, are more stories from his book New Beginnings and the second half of the podcast. (Not a Bump II member? Sign up here!)
Bump II subscribers can log in here to listen to the second half of the podcast.
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Sophia Colby from Bill Aron’s Book New Beginnings
Sophia Colby
Age at diagnosis, 15 Months
Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), 2005
“Life is about moments. We have started to live day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and sometimes second-by-second. And when you sit there with those seconds seeming so long, you realize how many of them you have.
We have the luxury of seeing so many little gifts that other people don’t see.The smell of my daughter’s hair in the morning is one such gift. My favorite daily gift is getting to snuggle in the morning.”
“There is a constant reminder that she’s borrowed. She’s not ours.”
Tiffany Graley from Bill Aron’s Book New Beginnings
Tiffany Graley
Accounting, Payroll
Age at diagnosis, 22
Ewing’s sarcoma, 2004
“I swam and played water polo my entire life, but one day a doctor looked at scans of my arm and told me that what he saw was life threatening. A tumor was growing so big and so fast, it was breaking the bone, and they needed to operate right away…
Life didn’t seem fair. My parents had just gotten a divorce and my best friend had died in a car accident. Plus, my brother has autism and can’t speak. I had just graduated from college and I was finally starting to get my life together. Cancer made it feel like it was all being ripped away…
I didn’t know anyone else my age with cancer. Then I discovered “Planet Cancer”…I could heal and help others heal in this place…
Cancer gave me a new lease on life. I would never wish cancer on anyone…I don’t take my life for granted now. You never know when it might be gone.
Rabbi Ed Feinstein from Bill Aron’s Book New Beginnings
Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Rabbi, Author
Age at first diagnosis, 39
Colon cancer, 1993
Liver metastasis, 1997
“I was 39, a young rabbi and father of three small kids, when the first cancer was discovered. I had major surgery and a year of unpleasant chemotherapy. Four years went by and they discovered a tumor in m liver. The doctors were nice enough to let me know that metastasized colon cancer is fatal in about 80 percent of the cases.
“The way of healing is to balance the loss and fear and rage with a sense of gratitude. When they balance, we are whole…whether or
not we are cured.”
Robert Lam from Bill Aron’s Book New Beginnings
Robert Lam
Age at diagnosis, 12
Ewing’s sarcoma, 2006
From Ravi, Robert’s Father:
“After six rounds of chemo, Robert had a knee replacement. His lower leg did not take it well and started to die…The final option was amputation. He then had to have three more rounds of chemo.
He has always been an athlete…He shows off is prosthetic let like it’s a prize. When little kids start at his leg, he has them come over and touch it and ask questions. Then he teases them and scratches it like it’s itching. He has such a good humor about it. Some days he’ll put a Band-Aid on it.
He proves to all of us that you can always make the best of anything. We quickly realized how precious life is…
“We don’t look back. Only forward.”
Stephanie LaRue from Bill Aron’s Book New Beginnings
Stephanie Larue
Model and organizational Spokesperson, Speaker, Realtor
Age at diagnosis, 30
Stage 4 Metastatic breast cancer, 2005
Recurrences 2008, 2010, 2013
“When doctors told me I had nine months olive in 2005, I immediately went out and got two tattoos; one with the predicted date of death and a second with the phoenix rising from the ashes. From that day on, I became determined to enjoy every moment of life…
Some people don’t allow cancer to change them. They get caught in the negativity and can’t do what it takes to save their lives. You have to learn to pick up the pieces when they all fall apart. I learned that I needed to live life exactly as it was being handed to me. I needed to be presenting Stage 4 because there is no Stage 5…”
“I have learned from cancer that life should be about making
memories, helping others, and nourishing our souls. I wish that all
survivors could learn to breathe in that breath of fresh air.”
Bill Aron On Life, Cancer and So Much More
“You know you’re not the only person with cancer, but you feel incredibly lonely and separate from the rest of humanity.”
“People diagnosed with a serious illness…it’s like they’re transported to another country with its own language, with is own timeframe and with its own social and normative structures, separate from the land of healthy people.”
“The way of healing is to balance loss and fear and rage with a sense of gratitude. When they balance, we are whole, whether or not we are cured.”
“They (everyone in the book) all became my teachers. They helped me articulate my feelings..They helped me learn to move forward.”
“A cancer patient faces the decision of life and death on a daily basis.”
“With cancer, it’s not death or cure anymore. Learning to live with cancer is a very different mindset and many need to figure out how. But we don’t have much help.”
“Anyone that writes me is welcome to have a book, gratis.”
“I need to be present in stage 4 because there is no stage 5.”
“Life is about moments.”
“Just learning about people under 40 with cancer, it teaches you about the fragility of life.”
“If you let it (cancer) express itself in emotional terms to you, then it becomes a life changing experience.”
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