The Cancer Whisperer: Finding Courage, Direction, and The Unlikely Gifts of Cancer

by Sophie Sabbage

Overview

The self-published sensation and UK bestseller that has helped thousands touched by cancer.

“I have cancer. Cancer does not have me.”

Sophie Sabbage was forty-eight years old, happily married, and mother to a four-year-old daughter when she was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. Since that shocking diagnosis, she has been on a remarkable journey of healing and renewal that has reshaped her life—for the better.

The Cancer Whisperer chronicles Sophie’s extraordinary relationship with cancer and the very effective methods she has used for dealing with her fear, anger, denial, and grief. The Brené Brown of cancer, Sophie empowers readers to reject the traditional adversarial relationship with cancer by teaching us how to listen to it; how to be healed by it as well as how to seek to cure it; and how to be emotionally free even when we are physically curtailed.
 
Beautifully and poignantly written, The Cancer Whisperer encourages cancer patients to:
 
• Direct their own treatment while preserving their personhood in a system that tends to see them as patients more than people.
• Engage with fear, anger, and grief in healthy and healing ways instead of toughing it out, trying to be falsely positive, or collapsing into despair.
• Radically shift from being a cancer victim to a cancer listener—fostering an understanding of cancer as a symptom of other underlying causes and engaging with whatever changes it calls on them to make.
 
As authentic as it is revolutionary, The Cancer Whisperer calls for an end to “the war on cancer” and the start of a more transformative dialogue with the disease.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735212367
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/24/2017
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	559,777
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

SOPHIE SABBAGE is an inspirational writer, speaker, and facilitator who has worked in the field of human development, emotional intelligence, mind-set change, and corporate culture change for more than twenty years.

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Excerpted from "The Cancer Whisperer"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Sophie Sabbage.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Compass 13

Chapter 2 Coming to Terms 26

Chapter 3 Understanding Your Disease 51

Chapter 4 Knowing Your Purpose 71

Chapter 5 Stabilizing Your Body 85

Chapter 6 Clearing Your Mind 97

Chapter 7 Directing Your Treatment 120

Chapter 8 Dancing with Grief 143

Chapter 9 Breaking the Shell 163

Chapter 10 The Best Medicine 180

Epilogue 190

Appendix: Support Systems 203

Acknowledgments 209

Editorial Reviews

"A brilliant new book that offers a radically different way of dealing with the disease."
—Daily Express
 
"Sabbage charts the physical aspects of her illness with unsparing precision."
—Irish Times

"This is medicine for the soul from a soulful cancer thriver."
—Kelly Turner, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds

From the Publisher

02/01/2017
In October 2014, Sabbage, a personal development trainer, was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer that had metastasized to her brain and spine. In addition to blogging about her experience, she has written this book, originally self-published in 2015 in the UK. This U.S. edition contains an additional chapter. It is important to note Sabbage's standard disclaimer, that her advice is not a substitute for professional medical knowledge, nor does she recommend specific treatments, but she does hope that some of her suggestions will provide a good starting point for other patients. Sabbage's eight-stage program, based on her Compass Model, may be helpful for patients dealing with their own conditions, and others may relate to her experiences and find benefit in her friendly and accessible writing style. VERDICT Helpful for patients with any chronic condition, this book will encourage them to approach realistically their illness and to partner with doctors to become active participants in their own treatment. This title may also be helpful for clinicians who want to consider the patient's point of view.—Margaret Henderson, Midlothian, VA

Library Journal

2017-01-30
A woman courageously stares down incurable late-stage cancer.Motivational speaker and first-time author Sabbage tells how her "fierce, feisty and indomitable sense of self" drove her to reject defeatist doctors and an impersonal health care system that recommended she accept a traditional, medical death sentence rather than a management plan to treat her disease. In this uplifting book, the author seeks to inspire patients in their journey of "coming to terms" with their mortality. "This is the passage from no to yes," she writes, "darkness to light, victim to author, paralysis to creativity, passivity to power." Conversely, "if you believe your game is up, then it is." Sabbage provides a directory and self-help guide for cancer patients but little else for loved ones or those not directly affected by the disease. For them, the author offers a two-page list of what well-meaning friends and relatives should do: "Helpful" includes empathy, child care assistance, "prayers (of the authentic variety)," and "not visiting me if you have any viruses, especially if I am going through chemo. Using antibacterial gel before seeing me, even if you are healthy." On the other hand, "unhelpful" includes "giving me advice" and telling "me about your non-life threatening ailments and how awful they are." Sabbage is a compassionate writer who advises patients to direct their own treatments, and she provides reassurance that "we cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we perceive what happens and how we choose to respond." Throughout, she remains both defiant yet encouraging regarding her treatment. "I hope this book will help you experience…the wonder of forging your own path through a dense, dark forest that sometimes seems to offer no respite or escape," she writes.Sabbage proves to be an empathetic advocate for patients confronting one of the world's most unsparing and mystifying diseases.

Kirkus Reviews

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