Personal experiences

I have just come across a very inspirational blog written by a young woman suffering from cancer. "Written Off" is published by Ellie Jeffery, and in her blog she describes her experiences as she battles cancer. It is a brilliant blog. She describes her treatments, her experiences with alternative therapies in combination with chemotherapy, and also highlights charities that support cancer sufferers. In her latest post, she describes how she copes with hair loss and provides excellent advice for limiting the effects. She is a wonderful woman, and I am so impressed with her positive attitude. Her blog is informative, and most importantly useful.

Meet e-Patient Dave

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. TED talks are short, inspirational videos, and one of their latest ones is called "Meet e-Patient Dave" and it is delivered by Dave deBronkart and it is truly fantastic. It is very moving, because Dave describes his battle with cancer but focuses on the need to involve patients in the decision-making process regarding their treatment regime. Dave talked about some brilliant resources to support patients, including

• Association of Cancer Online Resources - which provides resources and forums for people with cancer and related disorders
• Visible Body - a 3D atlas of the human body 
• Google Body - another 3D atlas of the human body

  

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1492155/pdf/jgi_30261.pdf