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.

It's coming...it's COMING !!!!!!!

The matte printed version of Running From Cancer will be in my hands May 10th in Prince George, just in time for the Relay for Cancer I will be attending there.
It should be available in Kindle e-version by morning. E-pub has to wait 90 days I'm afraid. Sorry e-pubers!!! It's amazon.com's exclusivity clause. 
A glossy pocketbook version will be available to order from amazon.com by Monday hopefully! It's coming...it's coming!!

REAL IMPORTANT: If you get a copy PLEASE take the time to leave a "review." I need 35 reviews before I can hit a certain marketing level for the next stage. Whatever that is?

If it does well here, we can take it across Canada! Oh JOY!!

Trout or Tuna Stuffed Tomato Recipe

It's warming up outdoors! Time for some new salad recipes or side vegetables to pump up those anti-oxidants.

Check out the latest called Trout or Tuna  Stuffed Tomatoes at www.debilynsmith.com under the Healthier-Option recipes.

Do you have a super healthy recipe you want to share? Send it to me at contact@debilynsmith.com.

If I LOVE it and it's simple enough to try, you might find it on my next recipe blog.

Counting The Days

My nights have become rodeos as I flip wildly back and forth, mumbling about stage fright and book prices in Australia and worrying will my book, Running From Cancer, make it here in time for the first cancer relay? 
My husband tried pinning me with his thigh, but the resulting carpet burn on his forehead got too many laughs the next day.A lasso wasn't any help.  He was eyeing up the staple gun last I saw him. Could be another book to be written? Running From Insomnia.

Toss, turn. Turn, toss.My thoughts are on steroids blasting in every direction...did I order enough business cards, will the brown bags hold up if someone buys three books instead of one. What should I say to complete strangers before I sign their book? Will anyone want their book signed?

I have received the finalized manuscript gallies and now am told I have to WAIT a week before Lightening Source approves the application for publication. I had ASKED if there was something I could do to speed the process up. "We've got overwhelmed by applications lately," the salesman said.  I could have reached through the phone and choked him had the ear piece in my hand been bigger. A pressure cooker?
 I also have to wait for the head of the northern relays to assess my speech material I e-mailed last week to see if she will endorse my appearance at other relays. I hold my breath for that as well. Once I get the okay, I can send out flyer posters- oh wait, the local printer ran out of black ink which will arrive soon and then I can get the posters...
I am at the mercy of a process I don't even understand. One of my three Genie wishes would be for patience. The other two would involve an anti-aging solution so I would feel like I HAD time to wait for everything!
Remember, there are three more books to go...

People are asking about when the book Running From Cancer is due to arrive.

The manuscript is in the  hands of a company in California for final edit, interior design and typesetting. The company will also be turning it into other formats like epub and kindle for e-book sales. Once the material returns, I still have to go over it one more time before sending it back for uploading to the two different publishing houses. LighteningSpace for the print and Amazon.com for the e-books.
LighteningSpace will see the book into all the major chains in the U.S. and into Canada. Whether or not the book is ordered by your independent local bookstore will be up to the buzz we can create about it. That's why I will be calling on everyone for favours like visiting my blog site as often as possible and clicking on different blogs to view (you can click up to nine times in a row. I need to get the number over 10,000. It's at 8,000 now. So close.)

When the book is out, hopefully by May 15, 2013 writing your review of it on the Amazon website is crucial for its future. Once I have 35 reviews, I can get it into a more mainstream outlet to take it to the next level.

My job is to stand on stages and in front of rooms full of people to deliver my Fight Back speal. The old quit Running From Cancer and stand up to it. Give it the kick in the pants it deserves. Stop  those rising numbers of 200,000 people a year hearing that they have joined this crappy club.
It's time to get tough with yourself NOW, not after you learn you have cancer. Get educated. You need to arm  your immune system with the weapons to withstand the onslaught when it happens. You need to drink more water than wine, get oxygenated through daily exercise and eat 10 fruits and vegetables a day. Less red meat, more nuts and beans. There are more tips in the book.

A lot of what I repeat is from research compiled over the past two years. Most of it is common sense, but some times common sense isn't so common.

So look for me coming to a community near you soon. In May and June I will be covering northern B.C. at the Relay for Cancer runs. The Terry Fox Run in September and the CIBC Run For The Cure in October. Where, I have yet to find out but I will post a schedule once I get one finalized.

Until then, thanks for hanging in there with me. Patience never was a big factor in my life.

Running From Publishing

The excitement continues to roll as the date of publication for Running From Cancer  looms nearer. I think another book title could be Running From Publishing. It's such a confusing world I know nothing about.
It wouldn't be the first time I whirl-winded headfirst into something completely out of my element. I wonder how painful this hard landing might be?
The next two books should be much easier to get out, I'm hoping.

My pink and black camo pants have arrived from California  I ordered size 9/10 as comments said they ran small. I normally take a 5/6.  Sure enough, they are like a comfortable girdle. Perfect length and they DO fit, just tighter than I like for being on a stage. Never know when a zipper is going to blow out from a last minute 'panic-carb.' In front of how many people???

I plan to dress in these pants with Mom's black ball cap with the pink cancer symbol on the front and Fredericton, N.B. on the back. Black army boots for walking the tracks at the multiple relays across the north over May and June, together with my first CIBC run-for-the-cure t-shirt I got in 2006 in Prince George. It was my first cancer run and I was more interested in seeing if I could last the 5 km than I was about talking to people about cancer. I donated to the 'good cause' not realizing what that meant.

Now that I do, I'm determined to help others wake up and see the big picture. After giving three cancer-related speeches in the past two years, there has been enthusiastic replies to my offers to speak at the various relays in northern B.C. The Relays start in May and end in June.

Cancer is here people, and its determined to stay. Which it will, continuing to mow us down until changes are made. Remember when we all used to smoke cigarettes?  Same thing. It took years, but the change came. Now the smokers are the minority in Canada. Maybe we can do that with the cancer numbers. Reverse the rise?

I bought yellow paint for the wood easel I will be propping the HOPE sign and stuffed buddy Homer, from the book, on to take with me across B.C.
 There has been pricing for a stand-up banner with the book cover on it for promotions,business cards with the book logo and book display holders and I still need to get professional pictures taken. That will be hard this week when my face connected with some hard snow on Sunday and it looks like Barry punched me in the face. It's very big, very purple and a pound of beige 'white-out' only makes it look worse.








My name is Sergeant  DebiLyn Smith of the army against cancer and I fight back... Ha.

All this is why I haven't phoned or written or had anyone over lately.
Thanks for your patience! xo

New Web Site Changes

A large thanks goes out to my guru web site master programmer  Bill MyersRetED DSD WTD, who has patiently sorted through the change of mind, typo riddled, lah-lah land suggestions for up-grading the website at www.debilynsmith.com

I found  the Alphabetical Cancer Prevention tips everyone commented on were getting buried beneath the other blogs, never to be found any other way except by date. Hmmm. When did that tip on what kind of water is best to drink appear? What year was that even? See?

So Mr. Bill has given us another area to click on to get right to where we want to go. W is for water, L is for lemons, t for toxins. It's up and ready to try. I have a few changes to make to up-grade some of the blogs- I hope to get to that soon.

On the book front, the cover details have been handed over by the designer and are now mine to copyright.

Today I received a very generous and helpful discount from my local bookstore, Countrywide Printing in Houston on two easels to take with me for my Relay for cancer  Fight Back speeches. The one easel will hold Homer- my mother's stuffed bear that helped my sister Kim and I through her passing. Homer was at my side for the cancer ride and will remain beside me as long as I need his help. The easel will also display the "Hope" sign a twelve year old girl from Burns Lake painted and donated to the Terry Fox run and annual fund-raising auction. I told her when my book was published, her painting would travel with me to help spread the news that yes, there is hope. You can quit running from cancer and stand up and fight back. Now would be a good time to start. Before you get cancer.

A second easel with a roll of paper so I can write down the key points of my talk. This will eliminate the paper I usually hold in front of my face. The one I drop, or that will blur in and out of focus in my stage fright phase.
The pink cammo pants, and black army boots from e-bay are on their way and once here, I go for a hair cut and professional pictures for the posters. I want to keep my hair short for  when I face others going through  what I did. I used to hyper focus on women's hair, not able to get over how beautiful it looked on them. I don't want that to happen to someone I am trying to get through to. I want them to hear the encouragement, the hope, the strength that I will try to pass on.
Because I believe cancer CAN be beaten.
And I believe the rising number of cancer deaths can be slowed down or reversed if people learned to take a harder look at what it takes to win this war. Never forget that you have to kill cancer before it kills you. It's never too early to start fighting.