Brain-Body Breakthroughs – Relationships, Love and Healing: The lighter side of childhood cancer. An interview with Suzanne Henry

Summary: Just the thought of cancer in a child conjures up images of pain, suffering and injustice. If that's the case, you'll be overwhelmed with the outpouring of emotion and the uplifting message in this program. I am not interviewing an expert in treating cancer who wears a white coat all day long but the mother of a young woman who developed cancer as a teenager -- an expert in how to live with childhood cancer (http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/cancer/cancer.html). When her daughter was told by one doctor to go home and die with her Wilms' tumor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilms'_tumor), Megan said to her mother, "That doctor doesn't know me very well." If you have never met a child with cancer and her mother, there is no better place to start. The interview chronicles the journey of a resilient young woman from the world of Irish dancing to the inside of an operating room and then through two stem cell transplants (http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/heart/stem_cells.html). All with a homecoming dance, some intense mother-daughter bonding, being told by a hall monitor at school to take her hat off after she lost all of her hair and a wake that was attended by almost 1,000 friends. You will hear from an inspirational mother who supported her entire family through the darkest hours and brought them out the other side able to love the moment, appreciate the little things and enjoy everything life has to offer. What she has to say about the "good" in cancer will surprise you. Finally, you'll hear how important hope is for getting through the tough times and being able to wake up and smile every day.