The important thing is to take that first step. Bravely overcoming one small fear gives you the courage to take on the next. -- Daisaku Ikeda
When your diagnosed with cancer you sometimes feel that you don't know how to take that first step. What is the first step? For many it is very different. You might need time to accept what is happening, or you could be the kind of person to jump right into researching your disease, you'll probably need to find a surgeon and an oncologist and maybe even a plastic surgeon. Getting through the first steps can lead to making the rest of the journey easier.
One thing I have learned throughout my cancer experience is that I surprised myself at what I could actually handle. I took a scary step and got my port put in my chest so I could receive chemotherapy. I dreaded the fact that I had to get that port. I felt like such a freak. Even though the port was under my skin completely, it was protruding from my chest and I really felt like a cancer patient at that point.
Stuart Shifrin, who originally volunteered to be one of the first teachers in a research internship program at the National Institutes of Health sixteen years ago, has since become a key player in the discovery and development of a promising new cancer drug. When the opportunity to participate in the Student and Teacher Internship Program, sponsored by Howard Hughes Medical Institute -- that places high school students and teachers in NIH labs to experience science in action -- Shifrin thought it might be an educational experience in how scientific research is conducted and nothing more. 
