A Young Adult Survivor Story: 15 Years in the Making

Nearly 72,000 young adults, ages 15-39, are diagnosed with cancer every year. April is the time when we highlight the unique challenges that young adult cancer survivors face like school, jobs, dating, getting married and having children. Over the years, LIVESTRONG has interviewed thousands of cancer survivors. Many of those survivors were filmed for our website including a woman named Kim Bergeron. Kim applied to become a LIVESTRONG Leader this year and we jumped at the chance to share her survivor story again 15 years in the making. Kim’s 2003 interview with LIVESTRONG LIVESTRONG: We interviewed you in the early 2000’s just after your second year of survivorship. You mentioned how much your priorities had changed because of cancer. 15 years later, how has being a young adult cancer survivor impacted how you look at life? Kim: After my successful cancer battle I thought I still needed to be that fierce, go-getter, anxiety driven executive. I immediately went back to work. After two years I realized I wasn’t completely there for my boys and was not fulfilled in my work so I made changes. I have removed a lot of anxiety from my life. I have a much more appreciative outlook on life and I am more reflective and focused on things that matter in my life. I enjoy looking at the birds, sky, and flowers – all things I really didn’t appreciate before cancer. I have also given up that ‘grit’ from work and have channeled it towards living a more fulfilled way. I s...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: blogs