Written by William Harper, Survivor  | Most people who have had cancer would probably tell you that the worst day of their life was the day they found out they had it. Because it happens to other people, and you're too healthy and you're too young and your future is too promising for it to happen to you. Surely you heard wrong, surely that wasn't a tear you felt fall onto your hand from your mother's face while she sits beside you and has heard exactly what you did. Yes, it's cancer you've got. And you're about to find out what you're really made of. 

January 23, 2009. This is the day my youngest daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Cancer was a tumultuous journey and throughout it we decided, above all, to live. And live we did. My daughter, Rhema, had just turned 12 when she was first diagnosed with desmoplastic small round cell tumors, an aggressive childhood cancer with an abysmal outlook. But with the support and optimism of her oncologist and nursing staff we began her treatments in earnest. Rhema’s cancer responded so well--there was great hope! Finally, after 11 long months of treatments Rhema was declared “N.E.D.” the magical words we had longed to hear for so long: no evidence of disease. With hope that she would beat the long odds, we set off for her Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World in January and shortly after I went back to work. It was as exciting as it was scary to begin piecing our life back together again.

(September 5, 1997 – June 3, 2012)