Helene Strand

London England

Life is different now because it is the only thing that matters after cancer. I don't worry about the small things anymore. I don't get annoyed by little problems that come my way. I love life, and I live it day by day. We can never know what will happen tomorrow, so make the most of today!

Hamid Madi

Raleigh, North Carolina

I enjoy life, and I appreciate my family and friends even more. Little things don't bother me as much, and the imminent birth of my first child is undoubtedly another reason I feel blessed to still be alive.

Ajay Malghan

Laytonsville, Maryland

Somehow cancer became the best thing that ever happened to me because I needed a butt kicking that my older brother couldn't give me. Once I recovered, I started making the most of every minute I could. I guess I was trying to make up for spending over a year in bed. I've had a couple of setbacks and a few of my joints have been replaced, but 14 surgeries later, I'm still pushing along. Some people dread turning 30, but it looked like a starting line to me.

Jennifer Gray

California

After cancer, I am vulnerable, soft, and emotional.

I am gritty, tough, brave, and bold.

I am afraid, and I am ready to kick some ass.

Cancer made me examine my deepest emotions and took me through my darkest times. Cancer has strengthened my relationships. Cancer has made me finally ready to go out there and live my life. I am not glad I had cancer, but, without it, I wouldn't be the me that I am today.

Kazuma Inoue

Osaka, Japan

I was sentenced to have two types of cancer just one month after I retired at the age of 61. Thanks to two different operations, I could come back to my daily life. After two years, I started again to climb mountains. I would like to climb all of the 100 famous mountains in Japan. So far, I have climbed 56. This photo was taken on my 56th mountain, Yarigatake.

Yodi Collins

Fairfax, Virginia

I "died" of cancer in 2004. Six months later, after a meticulous chemotherapy regimen, I was reborn into something remarkable. I have spent the years since then celebrating that giddy spring day. Today, I am love, hope, and joy — wisdom and strength.

Matt Garrison

Bath, New York

When I was preparing for a stem cell transplant to treat my leukemia, my wife, Cathy, bought this canoe. It is the best canoe in the world: a Minnesota II in graphite. Cathy said if I were to survive the transplant it would become my canoe, and we could keep paddling along together. Well, it's been almost six years now, and we have put over a thousand miles on the Min.

The thing is — mile by mile, year by year — it has become our boat, not just my boat. I guess that is what surviving is, getting back to us, not me.

Sarah Feather

Framingham, Massachusetts

Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I loved to sit around. Reading a book in a comfy chair with my cat was a perfect way to kill 8 or 10 hours. When my boys became toddlers and started running around, my sitting days ended, and I missed relaxing and being still.

Now that I have a legitimate excuse to be tired and sit down, I find that I don't want to sit so much anymore. I walk the dog. I cook dinner. I join committees. When I have the energy, and as my treatment schedule allows, I love to try new things that would have scared me before.

Although I still catch a healthy amount of good-natured ribbing from my family for my tendency to be a slug, we all know that I'm still here fighting, and I'm going to make the most of every minute.

Victoria Colliver Cautero

Berkeley, California

This photo is of me and my husband on our wedding day, just over three years after I finished chemotherapy and radiation for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I've always said that if cancer is a gift, please direct me to the returns line. With that said, I prefer to concentrate on all the blessings I have in my life and not what cancer has taken from me. Here's to new hair, a loving partner, wonderful friends and family, and radiating in a whole different way.

Zpora Perry

California

Sometimes life isn't that different, and I am still plodding through the day to day. But sometimes I am struck with a jolt of gratitude and joy that I am here, healthy, and happy. Doing handstands in a beautiful place can help me feel that way.

Cara Howell

Albuquerque, New Mexico

After four years of treatment for thyroid cancer, which included three rounds of radiation, a total thyroidectomy, and a partial neck dissection, I found my voice!

My diagnosis at age 27 occurred when I was trying to get pregnant. Instead of motherhood and the trappings of married life, my cancer experience exposed the unhappiness in my marriage and a lack of fulfillment in my life. Through the treatment process, I myself went through a kind of rebirth.

Today, I am starting over as a single woman in a new city and I couldn't be happier. I got a puppy and decided that play is often more important than work. Every single day, I try to love myself and those around me better. I adore the long, thin scar across my neck; it is beautiful for all these reasons and more.

Linnea Duff

Meredith, New Hampshire

For myself and many others with advanced cancer, we remain in treatment, and there is no life after cancer. Instead, I have had to learn to live with my cancer. Rather than calling myself a survivor, which would seem to suggest that the battle is over, I say that I am surviving. I just celebrated surviving five years since my cancer diagnosis.

As someone living with a terminal illness, I am acutely aware that each and every day is a gift, and I have learned to focus on the simple wonders of being alive.

Yarrott Benz

Los Angeles, California

As a high school teacher, one of my rules is transparency. I teach the fantastic subjects of art history and architecture, but I also teach something important by just being me — simply by example. My students learn that I grew up in the Tennessee of the Old South. They learn that I'm gay and comfortable with my sexuality. Recently, they also learned that I had a tumor on the base of my tongue from lymphoma — a story that announced itself with each word I mouthed.

For three months, they watched my face turn red and my energy fluctuate from the chemotherapy and radiation. Then, as if breaking out of a cocoon, my voice shed its muffle and returned to its normal clarity. Perhaps watching their teacher face cancer openly will give my students something that will help them should they ever need it.

Susan Pohl

Berkeley, California

After cancer, my husband and I bonded in a unique way. He made the daily journey for my treatments and never missed a doctor's appointment. Although I loved him madly before the diagnosis, his presence has brought me laughter and balance during the darkest of times.

Tisa DeForest

New York, New York

I feel grateful that I have to worry about taking my medication. On time. Every day. For the rest of my life.

Andy Mikulak

San...