Dear friends, welcome!

I am Kay Bevan and feel very fortunate. You see, I had late-stage ovarian cancer that bluntly defied conventional medicine's most powerful (and toxic!) treatments, yet husband John and I, with some professional help, managed to turn the malignancy around.

As you may know, facing the Specter of Death is an experience like no other. In fact, it was not only the uncertainty in determining the most promising alternative protocol (including a natural antiangiogenic agent), but especially, of the outcome. It either worked, or I died. So... as debilitating as this uncertainty was, doing nothing was hardly a course to consider.

Early on, we had decided to keep careful records and if I did survive we would somehow inform others of our findings. John and I were school teachers and conventional in most matters, including medicine. But going outside of the conventional with this purpose in mind did help me stay the course. In effect, it became a clinical trial with a single subject.

At first we thought of doing an informal write-up or even a video tape but realized that my medical experience had so many unexpected twists and turns that a longer format was necessary. A close neighbor suggested a book, but I had no such experience and the thought of sitting down and becoming an author seemed improbable. But my husband - an Ed.D. - offered to help. Yet so unsure were we of its prospects, we enlisted professional appraisal, which to our relief was positive. In fact it was the response, "It is hard to put down" that was most often heard from the enlisted readers. The results of my search (I have now survived since 1992!) is mirrored in the book's title: Learning To Love My Cancer; how a "silent killer" became a prescription for living - Charhill Voice, LLC, August, 1999 (includes short update).

Besides establishing this forum for the exchange of information between cancer patients, it is hoped that from this effort a registry of once-terminal cancer patients will be established. Sadly, when conventional medicine fails, the poor patient is left with a proliferation of obstacles, and sometimes stark prejudice should he or she choose to research and follow potentially lifesaving alternatives. A special national registry and advocacy group specifically for and by terminal and once-terminal patients seems to be a significant need.

With the understanding that this forum is in no way intended as a substitute for the professional counseling and care of at least one trusted health care provider, you are encouraged to send me an e-mail or telephone me at (520) 455-5331 on or near weekends. I'd love to hear from you!

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Kay's book, while it is a personal experience, is meant to provide its readers with a very realistic picture of the challenges cancer presents to its victims. Kay discusses this with great insight and humor.

- Ann Hummel for the Sonoita Weekly Bulletin