Edited by: Juliana Zhu, Esq.

When Debra Jarvis was a chaplain for the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a mastectomy, received chemotherapy, and is now cancer-free. As she was going through her treatment and surviving, she believed that the medical and science components of fighting cancer were important, but that what is even more important is to incorporate “feelings and faith and coping and meaning and evolving.” For Jarvis, the treatment was just a small, but essential, part of her life. She would go into receive the treatment, but then her everyday life was waiting for her; it was never on pause.

While she was a chaplain, she was able to relate more with her patients, who were cancer survivors. They could share advice and their experiences, but Jarvis Felt a little disconnected from her patients. It was the Label of being a Survivor. Jarvis realized that she was not just a Cancer Survivor since she also survived many other things, though she doesn’t wear a label for each of those things.

The label as a cancer survivor often dictates how a survivor should feel and what their experience should mean, Jarvis believes. She was told that she was going to ruminate over her life, participate in walks, and wear the pink ribbon. Jarvis felt that this label was swallowing her and taking over her life. It was then that she told herself, “Claim your experience. Don’t let it claim you.”

Read the full article here: http://www.cancerincytes.org/#!There’s-More-to-Being-a-Cancer-Survivor/c1dn1/55c598dc0cf2be396bab5df2 

You can watch Debra Jarvis’s TED Talk at: http://www.ted.com/talks/debra_jarvis_yes_i_survived_cancer_but_that_doesn_t_define_me?embed=true 

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Kristine Alarcon graduated at the University of San Francisco with a Bachelors of Science in Biology. She is working towards certification in Sterile Processing and Distribution. She is a Social Media Assistant at Cancer InCytes Magazine.

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References

NPR/TED Staff. “What Does It Mean to Be A ‘Cancer Survivor’?” NPR. Retrieved on August 7, 2015.http://www.npr.org/2015/07/31/426864692/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-cancer-survivor?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=health&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews

Photo Credit: http://blog.tedmed.com/tag/debra-jarvis/