Cancer is not a reason to be a victim. As early as the 1980s, Harold Benjamin, PhD, founder of The Wellness Community in Santa Monica, California, developed his “patient active concept,” a belief that a cancer patient has the power to make decisions that can improve his or her quality of life. The key, he said, was to perceive cancer not as a death sentence but as a powerful call to a life change.

     A good way to look at cancer survivorship is to see it as a journey that begins at the moment of diagnosis and continues for many years, even after treatment is over. To live up to the patient active concept means a lifetime change, not just a temporary adjustment. And at its core is an attitude that declares: “I am in charge of my cancer; my cancer is not in charge of me.” their health.

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Read the article in the latest edition of The Big C.