Inspirational Quotes for Cancer Patients
“Despite your diagnosis, there's always hope beyond what you see.”
- Cora
“When I was diagnosed, I was given very little hope of survival. I want people to know it’s possible not just to survive, but to thrive and to live a healthy, wonderful life again.”
- Erika
No Road Too Steep
There is no path so dark,
nor road so steep,
nor hill so slippery
that other people have
not been there
before me
and survived.
May my dark times
teach me to help
the people I love
on similar journeys.
-Maggie Bedrosian
“I know that not everyone wants to be as active as I was during cancer treatment. But I believe that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. So I tell people not to give up, no matter what battle they’re fighting. Never give up. You never know what you’ll accomplish if you do.”
- Leslie
“To me, cancer is like a teeter-totter. Sometimes you gotta go down to go back up. But eventually, your time is up. So enjoy what you have. Life is precious. It doesn’t matter if it’s two days or 20 years. Don’t waste it.”
- John
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
You can always find a different way of doing something. That’s why I tell other cancer patients to stay positive. Being positive is the best medicine you can take for yourself and the people around you. Think it’s going to be alright, and it will be. Because if you believe you can do something, you can.
- Maggie
And, for the first week or so, I wasn’t able to pee so they had to insert catheters. I also couldn’t have bowel movements for the first few days, which triggered abdominal pain. But I couldn’t take strong painkillers because of my addiction history, and the hydrocodone they prescribed made me feel too sick.
Despite all that, I still mustered the strength to get out of bed and walk 20 laps around the nurses unit. I even motivated another patient to join me.
- Diego
Preparing for a stem cell transplant is tough, so my advice to anyone facing one is to go in as strong as you can. Work out until the day you enter the hospital, and don’t pass up the cherry pie. Trust me: you’re gonna lose the weight. I ended up dropping 50 pounds due to the chemo and the transplant.
- Eddie
Having an Attitude
Attitude is everything in recovery from cancer. You gotta have 'tude if you expect to take a licking and come back ticking.
Tumor humor is not warm and friendly; it's scrappy and sometimes nasty and tasteless, a sort of chemotherapy for the spirit—necessary but (not always) nice.
-Robert Lipsyte
“Cancer robbed me of so many things: my hair, time with my family and friends, my health – the list goes on. But it’s also helped me improve my outlook on life. I don’t worry about the little things anymore, and I try to appreciate even the simplest things. I’m more certain than ever that I married the best man in the world, and I appreciate my parents even more. I may never have learned those things if it weren’t for cancer.”
- Allie