Running From Cancer: a tilted memoir

Somebody pinch me. (Not too hard, I still bruise easy?)

The book that began as a suggestion from my daughter Karly to "blog" my trip down the Cancer Freeway, is finally available for the general public to hold in their hands.

I don't have to wonder if the story will inspire or aid another traveler. It already has. That's all I ever hoped for: that someone could learn from what I went through. How to stop running from cancer. Learn to stand up and fight it for all you're worth. Not just after a diagnosis but before. Like right now. It's never too early to fight cancer.

As Catherine Aird said, "If you can't be a good example- then you'll just have to be a terrible warning." I resemble that remark. Anxious and afraid of words like surgery and chemotherapy, I fought everything instead of concentrating on the disease itself.

I know better and expect to live a long and fruitful life. My anti-cancer prevention belt has been tightened and I refuse to return to my old habits that dragged me down that road in the first place.

By reading this book, I hope you will be inspired to start tightening your own cancer prevention belt before you become one of the 500 Canadians a DAY diagnosed with cancer. Of those, 200 will die from it. But thanks to the generosity of good folks like you, new technology is constantly being funded and founded to save the lives of people like myself  And I can't thank you enough. If it wasn't for the cancer societies, my cancer never would have been detected as early as it was. Good thing as it had already escaped into a lymph node headed to the bloodstream and other points unknown. Cancer is scary stuff.

So don't mess with it. Get the book and read the 10 ways to prevent getting cancer, or use the twenty helpful tips if you do have cancer. Enjoy my favourite healthy recipes, just a few to put you on the right path.

Available through my website at www.debilynsmith.com (signed if you'd like), through www.amazon.com as a pocketbook, Kobo or Kindle e-book (e-pub released September 1st). Available through local bookstores across North America.

A portion of every book sale is donated to the Bulkley Valley Health Care and Hospital Foundation. It's the beginning of fundraising I hope to do to expediate getting a new piece of equipment for the Smithers hospital. A CT scanner be a world of help to cancer and other patients alike.