Alicia's blog on SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle online edition) is the type of blog that you read and re-read, and then have to walk away from and come back to, because it is so raw and honest. She was working for the San Francisco Chronicle during a two-year fellowship when she found out she had cancer. This blog is her account of her illness, starting from the day she found out she had cancer.

I do not have cancer and I will never be able to truly comprehend what someone with cancer goes through. Through blogs like Alicia's, though, I can have some understanding. Her conversational tone when she writes about her diagnosis and even her thoughts on her funeral, makes it real and has an impact that something more "sensationalized" would not have. She has an amazing style and I felt immediately drawn by her account.

Alicia chronicles her cancer in chapters, which makes it a story, in a sense. Which is also what she calls her blog; "Alicia's story." A story about a brave young woman. A story about cancer. A story that helps me understand and get a glimpse of what it is like to go through this. This is also a story that so many people are living right now and to them, it is not a story. To them it is harsh reality, as it is for Alicia.