Harry Fairfield, 57, freelance technical writer (medium height, reddish hair, thick thighs): I thought I was invincible, that I’d live to be 100. My parents and three grandparents lived into their nineties. The surgery, radiation, and chemo were hard but I fought through them. My fiancé broke up with me when she learned I had cancer and that was as hard as the treatment. After one failed marriage I thought she was my true love. I want to get to writing. I have a tech manual to work on but I have writer’s block that I haven’t been able to fight through.
Mary Wilson, 53, surgical nurse (brown hair and eyes, short, plump, round face): I’ve had a lot of patients who’ve had cancer but I didn’t think I would have it. For me it was the long months of radiation and chemotherapy. I was so sick after every treatment that I often thought it would be better to die. Would the docs ever be satisfied or was this a death sentence – either the cancer or the chemo would eventually kill me. Even eight months after the treatments stopped, I still live with the fear that I’ll have to start them again. I had to leave my job but I can always go back; I just don’t think I’ll be able to work with patients who go through what I had to endure. I try to be upbeat but I feel beat down.