Non­fic­tion

Dear Can­cer Love Stacy

  • From the Publisher
May 16, 2017

At forty-three with two chil­dren near­ing grad­u­a­tion and an excit­ing future ahead, Sta­cy Mid­dle­man was faced with the great­est chal­lenge of her life: a sec­ond diag­no­sis of breast can­cer. With fierce emo­tion­al grit she con­fronts her dis­ease — and pre­car­i­ous future — by writ­ing let­ters to can­cer and dis­sem­i­nat­ing her rage online. Dear Can­cer, Love, Sta­cy is a com­pi­la­tion of posts that were shared on Face­book in real time. Upon her first diag­no­sis, Sta­cy test­ed pos­i­tive for the BRCA muta­tion, a hered­i­tary genet­ic muta­tion asso­ci­at­ed with a high risk of breast and ovar­i­an can­cer which affects 1 in 40 Ashke­nazi Jew­ish women and men, at a rate ten times high­er than the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion. Stacy’s mes­sage of pre­ven­tion and under­stand­ing BRCA is essen­tial to the future of the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. Stacy’s voice is com­pelling and the con­nec­tion she has with thou­sands of read­ers is both unique and uni­ver­sal in this brave new world of social media. Her resilience in the face of true uncer­tain­ty shines a light onto what it real­ly means to be a survivor.

Discussion Questions