Patsy was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer February 25th, 2013. She was 34 years old, a happy, healthy mother of 3 with no symptoms or family medical history of colorectal cancer. Her next 3 years would be filled with chemo, surgeries, CT/PET scans and disappointments as treatment failed to clear the cancer. But they were also filled with happiness, faith, love, laughter, advocacy and dancing. We put her writings together in order that others can benefit from her amazing spirit and so we can share her with the world. This is the book she always wanted to write.

IT ALL STARTED ON THE EVE OF MY 43RD BIRTHDAY... With two young boys, a new lecturer position and all the commitments of an active life, Ros Ben-Moshe had no plans for a tumour to take over her life. Yet after the news came on her 43rd birthday, medical appointments turned into hours of surgery, casual conversations disappeared, and even her children started asking questions. In recovery rooms, as the clock slowly ticks, Ros Ben-Moshe starts writing. Through ups and downs, she tells it all, in an honest account of fighting the Big C, or should we say the small c? Brimming with humour, insight and sensitivity, this series of journals, written at the time, explores how we talk about and view illness, and how changing your mindset can do wonders on the journey to health. Through explanations of mindful healing techniques and the power of laughter, Laughing at cancer will inspire you to take a deep breath and start laughing.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A meditation on sense-making when there’s no sense to be made, on letting go when we can’t hold on, and on being unafraid even when we’re terrified.”—Lucy Kalanithi “Belongs on the shelf alongside other terrific books about this difficult subject, like Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.”—Bill Gates NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God’s disapproval. At thirty-five, everything in her life seems to point toward “blessing.” She is thriving in her job, married to her high school sweetheart, and loves life with her newborn son. Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. The prospect of her own mortality forces Kate to realize that she has been tacitly subscribing to the prosperity gospel, living with the conviction that she can control the shape of her life with “a surge of determination.” Even as this type of Christianity celebrates the American can-do spirit, it implies that if you “can’t do” and succumb to illness or misfortune, you are a failure. Kate is very sick, and no amount of positive thinking will shrink her tumors. What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists everything happens for a reason? Kate is stripped of this certainty only to discover that without it, life is hard but beautiful in a way it never has been before. Frank and funny, dark and wise, Kate Bowler pulls the reader deeply into her life in an account she populates affectionately with a colorful, often hilarious retinue of friends, mega-church preachers, relatives, and doctors. Everything Happens for a Reason tells her story, offering up her irreverent, hard-won observations on dying and the ways it has taught her to live. Praise for Everything Happens for a Reason “I fell hard and fast for Kate Bowler. Her writing is naked, elegant, and gripping—she’s like a Christian Joan Didion. I left Kate’s story feeling more present, more grateful, and a hell of a lot less alone. And what else is art for?”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and president of Together Rising

National Indie Excellence Award Finalist (2016) for Cancer. Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winner (2016) for Best Inspirational. Feathered Quill Book Awards Silver Medal for Best Inspirational (2016). Book Excellence Award Finalist (2016) for Inspiration. International Book Award Finalist (2015) for Health-Cancer. Readers' Favorite Award Finalist (2015) for Grief-Hardship. USA Best Book Award Finalist (2015) for Health-Cancer. Listed in The 55 Best Self-Published Books of 2015 - Kirkus IndieReader. Diagnosed with a late-stage cancer, after years of bungled and inadequate medical attention...and then to discover that the best-practice chemotherapy is not available in your province. After her delayed diagnosis of colorectal cancer, Robin McGee reaches out to her community using a blog entitled "Robin's Cancer Olympics." Often uplifting and humourous, the blog posts and responses follow her into the harsh landscape of cancer treatment, medical regulation, and provincial politics. If she and her supporters are to be successful in lobbying the government for the chemotherapy, she must overcome many formidable and frightening hurdles. And time is running out. . . A true story, The Cancer Olympics is a suspenseful and poignant treatment of an unthinkable situation, an account of advocacy and survival that explores our deepest values regarding democracy, medicine, and friendship. Half of the proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Canadian Cancer Society and the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada....

Regardless of whether its you, or someone you love that hears those blood chilling words, you-have-cancer, a cancer diagnosis turns your world upside down. You have so many fears and little comfort, so many questions and few answers, what do you do, where do you turn? Until now, little has been written that offers encouragement to ease your fears, or provides answers to the myriad of questions causing your angst. Embracing Cancer Embracing Life: The Guide For The Journey Beyond Diagnosis, guides you along the path that leads from dread to joy. Youll discover many things, including: Why its essential that you embrace your cancer. How you can move beyond the fear of death to the joy of life. Why you must embrace your family and friends. How to create your new life plan. Making the right choices Why your decisions will affect your life and longevity. How clinical trials can add years to your life. And much more to help you find the peace and happiness you seek. The author, Larry Martel, helps you realize that a cancer diagnosis doesnt mean your life is over, and shows you why it likely just the beginning. Larry demonstrates how to transform your feelings of powerlessness into a source of incredible strength. You can choose to live in a state of fear and anxiety or let Embracing Cancer Embracing Life help you create a world filled with love, gratitude and joy.

Nearing his final days, a beloved Unitarian minister meditates on life, love, and death: “The goal is to live in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for.” On a February day in 2008, Forrest Church sent a letter to the members of his congregation, informing them that he had terminal cancer; his life would now be measured in months, not years. He went on to promise that he would sum up his thoughts on the topics that had been so pervasive in his work—love and death—in a final book. Church has been justly celebrated as a writer of American history, but his works of spiritual guidance have been especially valued for their insight and inspiration. As a minister, Church defined religion as "our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die." The goal of life, he tells us "is to live in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for." Love & Death is imbued with ideas and exemplars for achieving that goal, and the stories he offers—all drawn from his own experiences and from the lives of his friends, family, and parishioners—are both engrossing and enlightening. Forrest Church's final work may be his most lasting gift to his readers.

“This is a memoir: a package of boasts, false modesty, flawed memories, dropped names, outright errors, and embarrassing disclosures that I think are pretty neat–but may appall you, if you’re squeamish or have an orderly turn of mind.”—Robert Nylen The thing is, Robert Nylen should have died several times in 1968. He was a goner in 2006, and 2007 as well, and yet he survived through a combination of dumb luck and sheer perseverance. Of course, as you read these words, he’s already bit the dust. But let’s not dwell on that. A self-confessed reckless jerk, Nylen spent the last four years of his life grappling with Big Diseases (cancer, diabetes), an astonishing twelve broken bones, and ten surgeries. His lifetime total is twenty-four fractures, most of which resulted from a flagrant refusal to act his age–or anyone’s age, for that matter. And yet Guts is not a mere chronicle of injuries but a sharp and wry meditation on American Manhood. Growing up in suburbia in the ’50s and ’60s, with a father who had worked on the atom bomb, Nylen was an immature kid who was always eager for attention. In college he became a slovenly, hard-partying fraternity brother who barely graduated. Then came the realization that he was going to have to go to Vietnam. A dramatic tour of duty came to an abrupt end with multiple wounds, leading him to grow up fast. It was then that he started the real risky business: business itself. Some ventures succeeded and some failed. He exercised feverishly and often displayed a complete lack of common sense. And then he got sick, inevitably, with colon cancer. Hilarious, moving, and riveting, this is the life of a tough guy as seen through the scope of a national obsession with toughness. Whether he was facing Viet Cong as a platoon leader in Vietnam or doing battle with venture capitalists at home, Nylen never backed down from a good fight–and he had the many scars to prove it. In Guts, Robert Nylen writes with humor and precision about the travails–and glory–of manhood.