Living with cancer, surviving cancer: a personal memoir of hope, experience, and fortitude. From the book: ‘Like most people, I feared cancer. Like most people, I called it ‘the Big C’, or something similar. Like most people, I pitied anyone who had cancer, thinking that it was like living in the shadow of death. And, like most people, I never really believed that cancer could strike at me. Perhaps I developed a sense of invulnerability when I survived an early scare at the age of 30 years after I found lumps in both of my breasts.