When someone says you have cancer, it’s like stepping into the cockpit of a commercial airbus, sitting at the controls, and wondering what all those strange buttons do. At first you don’t even know the destination much less the timing. You have no idea how to fly the plane, but there you are, a pilot learning how to something you never wanted to learn.Moreover, you feel as though you have already crashed.Author Marianne McDonough understands. From her own experience in 2012, she believes the initial weeks of cancer are the hardest part and, as a result, focuses on writing for newly diagnosed patients. In her introduction, she writes, “The diagnosis and treatment periods are notoriously intense, sometimes confusing, and always life altering.”In this encouraging, direct, and practical guide, McDonough packs a quick-read book with helpful information, inspiration, and step-by-step tips on how to live a strong journey, make good decisions, and be confident that you did everything you could to fight cancer the way you believe is best for you.To facilitate those goals, the author present myths and misconceptions that patients often encounter such as cancer is always fatal, too complicated to understand, and will define you for the rest of your life. One truth at a time, McDonough will encourage you to reconstruct and articulate your own beliefs. She wants you to determine for yourself what makes the most sense to you based on honest reflection, the best data you can find for your situation, and conclusions you draw for yourself as a result.Describing this book as a “simple path for a complicated journey,” McDonough includes information and resources to consult both during treatments and into survivorship. She doesn’t shy away from tough subjects such as residual effects from treatment and fear of relapse. But throughout the book she focuses on hope, positive mindsets, and proactive actions that will help you, as she says in her introduction, “attack cancer with a dedicated vengeance and more determination and courage than you ever thought possible.”

Why did I write this book?

Because I’ve battled cancer, and I know what it’s like to face mortality, fall to my knees, and fight an enemy that has lodged itself in my own body.

Cancer changed me. I don’t know how anyone goes through it without changing. The initial sense of powerlessness is overwhelming. It challenged me to the core. I remember learning words, concepts, treatments, statistics, prognoses, and a myriad of data I had never even heard before.

I was tired and confused. But I was also angry with cancer and determined to beat it.

Right after I was diagnosed, trying to figure out what to do, I went to a class at my oncology center because I wanted to talk to other cancer patients. When I introduced myself and said I had just been diagnosed, the other patients said something I didn’t expect and can now affirm, “You’re going through the hardest part.”

They were right, and as a survivor for six years, I am writing what I wish I could have found during that initial period of cancer. I didn’t have time for long books or theoretical treatises, so I tried to find short, practical, quick-read books that would give me solid tips for the journey. And I wanted someone to encourage me in simple, no-nonsense terms that I even had a future. But I couldn’t find those books.

Most of all, I needed a gut-level confidence that cancer was not in charge of my life, because cancer lies to patients and pompously declares, “From now on I’ll make all your decisions about what you’re going to do, when, and for how long.”

Cancer thrives on myths, misconceptions, and fear. Our best weapons are counteracting truths based on reliable data, firm convictions based on faith, and hope based on clarity of vision.

My first book 8 Steps to Getting Real with Cancer was released in 2016 and won the Midwest Book Award in the health division. I geared that book towards patients and those who love them. This second book evolved because my oncologist suggested my approach would work well for support groups. Since 8 Steps was primarily narrative, I decided to write a second book that could be read or discussed, even journaled if desired. Imagining a one-on-one conversation with my readers, I focused more on cancer myths and specifically addressed patients, although family and friends can surely benefit as well.

Beating Cancer One Truth at a Time isn’t about me or my journey. It’s about patients finding their own truths in their own way to beat cancer on their own terms. The subtitle states the main premise of the book: what you believe determines your journey.

If you are a cancer patient and you are discovering this book today, please know that the fight is worth it. You can do this. Let’s believe together for a journey you can be proud of.