After overcoming a breast cancer diagnosis so advanced and severe that doctors initially gave her a 2 percent chance of surviving a year, Darlene Arnold Gore said she found a new calling, speaking with and counseling other cancer patients and their families.
Now Gore has distilled her own experiences undergoing treatment for stage four breast cancer and her own practical advice and suggestions for those battling the disease — and for those supporting friends and relatives who are — in a book, “I Have Cancer. I Want to Live.”
Gore, a speech-language pathologist from Grenada, will sign copies of the book and speak about her experiences Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Turnrow Book Co. on Howard Street in Greenwood.
Gore was first diagnosed with end-stage breast cancer in May 2004. Given just a slim chance of surviving, she spent the next year living in Texas while undergoing different treatments.
In the 10 years since, Gore has spoken to countless people who have reached out to her for a bit of comfort and advice after finding her contact information through a cancer support network or finding her through friends.
“Living in a small community, a lot of people were very aware of my cancer journey,” Gore said. “Every patient is different, but I would tell them what worked for me and how I could remain hopeful when I wasn’t given much hope from the doctors’ perspective.”
Gore said her advice to others undergoing treatment, as well as to their friends and relatives, turned into a checklist of tips and suggestions for keeping up hope, supporting loved ones and emotionally and spiritually surviving treatment.
At the urging of one of her daughters, Gore said, she sat down to write the book, drawing heavily from a journal she kept during her year of intensive treatment. “My daughter told me, ‘Mom, this could help so many people.’”
Gore said the book focuses heavily on practical tips for making it through, including some suggestions about what to say — and what not to say — to those diagnosed with cancer.
One of the big challenges since overcoming the initial diagnosis has been remaining upbeat despite the constant risk that the disease would return, Gore said.
Surviving more than a year was a miracle in itself, she said, “but after that they told me I would possibly have five years, and I was thankful for those five years.”
Having just celebrated a decade of life since the initial diagnosis, Gore said she has made a conscious choice not to worry about if or when cancer might return.
“Up until this past summer, they kept saying it’s got to pop up somewhere,” Gore said. “You have to fight the fear and anxiety. We have chosen to live a life free of the fear and anxiety of the cancer coming back.”
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
