Too Young for This: Early-Onset Cancer Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe cancer in younger adults, along with a few parents and partners caring for someone diagnosed young. The range is wide: rectal, testicular, thyroid, cervical, ovarian, pancreatic, bladder, bone, eye and male breast cancers, leukaemias and lymphomas, a glioma found after a first seizure at a software developer's desk and an appendix cancer found after emergency surgery. Writers include a surf lifesaver, a pharmacy student studying between infusions, a transit mechanic whose nosebleed lasted forty minutes, an architect twenty weeks pregnant, a plumber, a dim sum restaurant owner learning to eat without a stomach and a mother whose three-year-old had neuroblastoma. They write from Cebu City to Cork, Lagos, Bogotá and Kuala Lumpur. Many were first told it was piles, IBS, stress, a pulled muscle, a football injury or early menopause; a barber, an optician and a blood donation van were among those who noticed something. Treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, a daily tablet, watch and wait, genetic testing for BRCA1 and Lynch syndrome, and choosing less treatment for a stage 0 cancer. Work, rent, weddings and young children run throughout. Not every account ends in remission: one woman lives with stage four breast cancer, another cared for her husband through glioblastoma, and a survivor ten years on is still scared sometimes.

Who it's for

For younger adults facing a cancer diagnosis or a symptom they have not yet dared to mention, and for the partners, parents and friends who sit beside them in waiting rooms.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 265 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.