Patient stories

I live in the Netherlands and, luckily for me, I was able to get new medication as part of a clinical trial. This was more a coincidence than it was […]

Mothers are all the same. We will always do whatever is needed to protect our kids, to prevent them from falling, having an accident, or getting sick.  If the question […]

I was misdiagnosed because they thought I was too young to have cancer. After six years, at the age of 52, I had become so anaemic that I was sent […]

In my decade-long journey as a patient advocate in Tanzania, I’ve witnessed the stark care divide between those fortunate enough to afford cancer treatment and those grappling with the harsh […]

I was diagnosed with a follicular lymphoma on January 7, 2005 thanks to a check-up for my cholesterol which, after a confirmative diagnosis, showed that I had cancer. It was […]

Extract from chapter 18 of ‘Cancer in the margins’ My wife Ingemar is being treated palliatively for BRCA2 – metastatic breast cancer (triple negative) – after a four-year process and […]

This is about my wife Esther who was diagnosed with Carcinoma of Unknown Primary (CUP) and whose treatments were not successful.  The biggest challenge was getting diagnosed. Esther visited our […]

Story 1  “Doc, I have stage III oesophageal cancer, and I have sold everything that I had including the parcels of land and my house here in the city, in […]

Around the time of my 60th birthday, I faced an unexpected testicular cancer diagnosis, typically seen in much younger individuals. Surgery and chemotherapy followed, fully covered by my job’s health […]

My name is Iara Mantiñan Búa and before I had cancer, I was a freelance journalist in conflict zones. Journalism and writing were not just my job, but my way […]

Facing the myth of the WHO essential medicines’ accessibility in Armenia Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the upper-middle income country of Armenia, where around 80% of […]