Signal Mountain native Amy Brock is taking her experience with breast cancer and turning it into something positive for others with her new book, “Being Cancer Happy,” available online through self-publishing company Lulu.
When she was diagnosed with very aggressive, stage 3 breast cancer in 2013, Brock was 38 years old with two young, active children, a 6-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son.
“They were very afraid and very nervous, as anyone would be,” said Brock. “I didn’t want them to be afraid of things they had no control over.”
So she immediately set out to help her family redefine cancer as something good, or at least reframe it as something that’s not entirely bad. She typically did so by employing her self-described “weird” sense of humor. For example, she joked with her husband about him creating an online dating profile, and cut her thinning hair into a mohawk.
The goal of Signal Mountain native and breast cancer survivor Amy Brock’s book, “Being Cancer Happy,” is to help cancer patients rediscover their joy in life while facing the struggles of the disease. (Contributed photo)Though she has successfully had her lump removed and is in remission, her medical journey has continued. And Brock said it hasn’t always been easy to stay positive. Her first radiation treatment burned her skin, which happens to only a very small percentage of patients. Her long-term hormone therapy treatments have caused problems with her nervous system and caused her spine to degenerate, and she has experienced swelling on her right side – her dominant side – from lymphedema she developed after her lymph nodes were removed.