Courage and hope. These critical qualities are what our co-founder and board chair Bonnie J. Addario profiles in a new publication titled The Living Room: A Lung Cancer Community of Courage. Finding hope and moving forward is a key theme that Bonnie probes with her community of Lung Cancer Living Room attendees and the many patients, survivors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals she communicates with every day.

We’re pleased to present the following comments of hope extracted from the 22 individual stories profiled in the book. We hope you find rainbows in them.

“I’m especially partial to the image of the rainbow because I often talk about the fact that lung cancer is somewhat doom and gloom, like it’s always raining and the sun never comes out, overshadowed by the dark clouds that loom above. But when you look deeper, patients are actually like raindrops, and all the research and treatment make up the sun shining down from above. And when the sun shines through those dark clouds, onto the delicate raindrops, we get our rainbow of hope, which represents where I am in my life right now.”
– Lisa Briggs, Chapter 9

Lisa Briggs

Three wishes for the future: “Find a cure for lung cancer, all cancers,” she says. “To live a full, vibrant life and not be sick, not be homebound, not have to rely on other people. And I’m happy now, as happy as I’ve ever been, and I want to see other people be happy.”
– Lois Iannone, Chapter 15

Three wishes for the future: “… number one would be cure cancer—all cancer, not just lung cancer. My second wish would be to see my youngest son graduate high school. I got to watch my first two, and I’d love to see him graduate too. But he’s only going into his freshman year, and we have a long way to go. My third wish would be to grow old with my wife, so we can hang out and do all the stuff we used to do before life took over. And to watch her smile and laugh our way to the end.”
– Michael McCarty, Chapter 11

Advice for newly diagnosed lung cancer patients: “… the part of my experience I share with them across the board is the part I just shared with a coworker recently diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer: ‘I’m still here after five years,’ I told him. ‘And you can be too.’ That was a huge thing for him to hear, for any lung cancer patient to hear.”
– Diane Spry, Chapter 16

Three wishes for the future: “First and foremost, I wish for continued good health. Second, I wish for more options for therapy to keep me in good health should the current drug I’m on fail. Oh, and number three, I wish for the Cleveland Browns to win the Super Bowl.”
– Matt Hiznay, Chapter 17

“The things people take for granted…. Life happens and puts things in perspective. I’m calmer now when someone cuts me off on the road, or I’m waiting on hold forever, or stuck in some line. I’m here, and that’s all that matters. Whatever life throws at me now, I can handle it with appreciation for all that I have because I fought for it.”
– Emily Bennett Taylor, Chapter 6

“… I survived cancer because I never gave up. My journey brought with it a renewed appreciation for life that I wanted to share with others who’d been similarly afflicted by such a dreaded disease. If I could get better, if I could survive all I’d been through and all the setbacks, so could they. So could anyone.”
– Bonnie J. Addario, Epilogue

Learn about how to purchase the The Living Room: A Lung Cancer Community of Courage on our website. We also invite you to attend the monthly Lung Cancer Living Room on Facebook Live and YouTube. You can also join the Living Room Community to receive special updates on Living Room events, patient resources, support services and more.