It was his father's death from stomach cancer -- and the cold, impersonal, clinical manner in which his father was treated leading up to his death -- that inspired Dr. Jeremy Geffen to become the kind of oncologist he wished had been available for his father -- "someone who could look into the mind, heart, and spirit of a human being as intently as he could gaze at an MRI scan or pathology report; someone who provided love, support, wisdom, and hope."

For the 20 years that have followed his father's death, Geffen's inspiration has led him in exactly this direction. He credits education and a strong network of mentors for preparing him for the path less traveled, for allowing him to achieve his vision for comprehensive, integrative medical care.

Geffen founded the Geffen Cancer Center and Research Institute in 1994, and directed it until 2003. It was one of the first cancer centers in the United States created specifically to provide complete, holistic care for people with cancer and their loved ones.

After working closely with cancer patients over the years, Geffen observed that every single question and concern encountered on the journey through cancer falls precisely into one of seven different yet interrelated domains.

Geffen wrote down these domains -- he calls them the Seven Levels of Healing -- and began sharing them with his patients and staff who remarked that the levels perfectly mirrored their own experiences. And so Geffen kept them fresh in his mind and over the course of time developed them into a formal program that became the foundation for the standard of care offered to his patients and their loved ones.

Geffen's book -- that brings life to the Seven Levels of Healing -- is called The Journey Through Cancer: Healing and Transforming the Whole Person. It is a result of his own personal journey that began the day his father left a dreaded string of words on his answering machine. "Oh, Jeremy. I think I've got a little problem. I had an endoscopy today and the doctor said I have a tumor in my stomach. Unfortunately, it's malignant. Maybe you could give me a call."

Geffen was in medical school when his father recorded these words. Now he is an accomplished oncologist, author, public speaker. He is the father of the Seven Levels of Healing -- soon to be revealed right here on The Cancer Blog.

To read previous post on the same topic, visit:
Sunday Seven: Seven Levels of Healing on Cancer Journey

Stay tuned for:
The Journey Through Cancer: What Is The Purpose of Medicine?

Sean Swarner was once given two weeks to live. He is the only person in the world to have ever had two specific types of cancer and he is the longest living survivor of one of them. When he was fourteen he was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin's Disease. He was expected to live for about three months. A year and a half after chemotherapy he was put in remission only to be stricken the second time with a very aggressive and deadly tumor attacking only three out of a million people. An Askin's disease tumor was attached to his lung and had grown to the size of a golf ball in less than four months. At this point Sean was told that he was only expected to survive for a few weeks.

Sean dreamed of helping others who were in his situation and becoming an incredible inspiration. His goal was to be the first cancer survivor to climb to the top of the earth. Sean achieved his goal in May of 2002 and still strives to climb more mountains. On the summit of Everest Sean brought a flag with names of those affected by cancer and left it at the top of the world forever commemorating the struggle of cancer patients worldwide.

Sean is one of the founding members of The Cancer Climbers Association, a non profit organization dedicated to motivating those afflicted with cancer by encouraging patients to inspire each other. Cancer Climber challenges and facilitates cancer survivors to climb their own Everest, thus overcoming their own limitations and mental boundaries.

Sean has raised cancer awareness and has instilled hope and inspiration in other cancer patients scanning the globe. Along with climbing, Sean now delivers inspirational speeches around the world.

Olympic Gold Medallist figure skater and breast cancer survivor Peggy Fleming spoke at a Surviving and Thriving luncheon sharing her breast cancer experience. Fleming told the audience of breast cancer survivors attending the luncheon that the breast cancer diagnosis was a shock considering her identity as an athlete was based on health.

After the shock wore off, she gathered her inner resources and faced breast cancer with the same skills that had taken her to the heights of athletic excellence and accomplishment.

Fleming took on breast cancer as a competition she was intent on winning. "Cancer doesn't care who you are or how well you take care of yourself," she said. "It just happens."

As an eight-year breast cancer survivor, Fleming currently works as an ice skating commentator on ABC and ESPN. She tells her story as a way to inspire and enlighten other women facing a breast cancer diagnosis and breast cancer survivors living beyond breast cancer. To read more about her appearance at the Surviving and Thriving luncheon, read Former skater describes fight against cancer by Laura Hensley.

One of the ways I have been touched by, and admire, breast cancer survivors is the willingness they have to share their personal breast cancer story in the context of a larger life of self discovery. In 2000, Fleming had her book published, The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories, in which she tells her story from the time of life as a little girl being raised by a disciplinarian father who drank and domineering mother who controlled those around her, to her marriage, her skating career and her treatment for breast cancer. As a breast cancer survivor, the strength and hope I took from breast cancer survivors as a newly-diagnosed breast cancer patient sustained me and nurtured me during the most difficult point in my life, and will remain an immeasurable gift of healing.

Billionaire Dutch businessman, philanthropist, outspoken environmentalist and wildlife conservationist Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, who owned the 81,000-acre Letterewe Estate in Scotland, as well as nature reserves in England and wetland reserves in the Netherlands, and who founded the Africa Parks Foundation (APF) developing parks in Malawi, Zambia and Ethiopia, has lost his life to pancreatic cancer.

Paul van Vlissingen and the van Vlissingen family are well-known in the Netherlands for the many generations of interest and efforts on behalf of wildlife. He was said to be involved in environmental causes on every continent. To promote responsible management of nature, he appeared in television programs with Prince Charles. In addition, he was a published author and spoke publicly on environmental causes.

A few excerpts from his obituary read:

"He supported human population control, but believed it could be attained only through choice and empowering women through education and equality."

Noting how as a boy Van Vlissingen spent much of his time outdoors, reading voraciously and writing poetry, his parents joked: "We have three children and a gypsy."

"He was convinced that continual change is the oxygen a company needs for its survival. He was also convinced that both fun and challenges in the working environment were important for all, and he evolved a managerial style which emphasized respect for, and investment in, people."

When Van Vlissingen was diagnosed with cancer, he founded the Van Vlissingen Cancer Fund in the Netherlands. Paul Fentener van Vlissingen was 65. Fascinating man.

When the First Lady of Surfing, Rell Sunn was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32, she was told she had months to live. She lived each day as if it were her last -- with complete passion and compassion -- and lived another 15 years.

When I posted that each year during the Luau & Longboard Invitational event to raise money for the Moores UC San Diego Cancer Center, the Rell Sunn-Queen of Makaha Award in memory of Rell Sunn is given to honor the person or organization that best displays the qualities of compassion, unselfishness, aloha spirit and dedication in the fight against cancer -- I went in search to learn more about Rell Sunn.

Britain's television and radio fitness guru Diana Moran recently shared her breast cancer experience in an interview with BBC News. Back in the 80's, Moran led a national campaign for health and fitness with a program called Get Britain Fit. She gained the nickname Green Goddess for her trademark green leotards. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she said it came as a complete surprise to her. She had never felt better. She had no symptoms that told her anything was wrong.

Because Moran, at 47, was entering menopause, she had gone to the doctor to see if she qualified for hormone replacement therapy (HRT). It was then she had a mammogram and breast cancer diagnosis followed. From disbelief, to fear, to anger, she searched for information but back then, no one talked about breast cancer and little information was available. Moran decided, as a high-profile personality, to keep her breast cancer diagnosis and double mastectomy private, and in retrospect she feels that was wrong. Five years after the cancer diagnosis, she found herself in counseling working through all the intense emotions she had buried in putting on a strong front and concealing all that she faced as a cancer survivor. Her message is to connect with others, be open, share what is going on.

Moran, now 66, is still going strong and is the published author of numerous fitness and beauty books focusing on women's issues, ageism, health, fitness and beauty; is a sought-after public speaker; and well-known celebrity with more than four decades of work in television and radio. She devotes a considerable amount of time to charities involving cancer, cerebral palsy and older people.

Susun Weed is an international authority on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women's health. Weed teaches herbal medicine, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, psychology of healing, eco-herbalism, nutrition, and issues of women's health to medical schools, hospital wellness centers, breast cancer centers, midwifery schools, naturopathic colleges, and shamanic training centers, as well as speaking at many conferences. She is the author of four books, Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year; Healing Wise; New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way; and Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way.

Some chapters of Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way are published online. At Weed's site, she has a series of articles published, including Eight Steps for a Woman Dancing with Cancer. Here are a few of the steps she recommends for women facing breast cancer.

• Submit. Give up. Make room for the miracle.
• Inform yourself. Listen to your intuition. Examine all the options, but only use what feels right to you.
• Accept support. Surround yourself with loving friends, healing music, special colors, prayer and affirmation.
• Maximize the healthy qualities of your diet.
• Increase you exercise level. Take a yoga or tai chi class weekly. Walk daily. Get a weekly massage. Pamper yourself with activity.
  

To read more about the steps, and other articles, you can visit Susun Weed's comprehensive site of herbal information and psychology of healing for women's health.

In celebration of today -- National Cancer Survivors Day -- I attended a BBQ event at the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge. The Hope Lodge, here in Gainesville, Florida, houses out-of-town cancer patients and their families so they can live in town temporarily while undergoing treatment at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. So these patients were able to easily attend the festivities today -- which included a BBQ lunch, gift bags, a keynote speaker, and a tour of the Lodge. Survivors from the community attended too for an uplifting afternoon of camaraderie.

My time at the event was limited. My boys, ages five and three, were with me and while they were entertained for a while by cookies and a fish tank and the box of mints that came in my gift bag, I knew their energy was best spent in the outdoors where they are always peaceful and content. And so goes my story with cancer -- I don't have much time to focus on this disease because of these two little men who distract me and keep me on my toes and redirect me with not a moment's notice. It's a blessing really -- the distraction -- because I get to spend more time on the joyous moments of my life and not on the worrisome ones. I get to watch my boys pick up sticks and turn them into fishing poles and watch turtles swim in lakes and dig in the dirt in search of shells. The official survivor celebration today was great -- while it lasted -- and I feel honored to be a part of a community of cancer survivors that in the United Stated is 10 million strong. But I must say that the best celebration for me today was the chance to really watch my boys, to really play with them, and to feel truly thankful for these two little angels who allow me to happily survive.

The doctor tells you that you have cancer. Most likely, one of the first things you want to know is how good -- or bad -- your chances are for surviving the cancer. If you do not ask, you will be told when the combination of recommended treatments are discussed with you. It's all about percentages. But what do percentages really mean for you personally? Not much. Cancer is a complex disease, with an equally complex outcome. At this point, you have two choices. You can give up -- feeling like cancer is a death sentence -- or you can decide to believe that your chances are as good as the best predicted percentages ever given to a cancer patient. I really like Deepak Chopra's example of statistics when he compared them to the weather. "If the average temperature in New York City for the year is 54 degrees Fahrenheit, that does not inform me what the temperature is just now or today. Similarly if you are a citizen of Bangladesh and the average income of a Bangladeshi happens to be $65 per household per year, that does not tell me what your personal income is if you happen to be a Bangladeshi."

Steps For Living and Art of Survivorship Matthew Zachary and Adam Dachman will be guests on Dr. Bernie Siegel's radio program, Mind Health Medicine, hosted by Positive Radio Network, on May 2 at 9am PST. Zachary, a long-term brain cancer survivor, and founder of Steps For Living and Art of Survivorship, and Dr. Adam Dachman, surgeon, accomplished pianist, composer and singer/songwriter both work to raise awareness for the special issues facing cancer survivors and bring resources to the cancer survivorship community with art and music. Art of Survivorship supports and features artists and musicians who are cancer survivors. If you are unable to listen to the show when it airs, you will be able to  find it listed in the Mind Health Medicine radio program archives.

One of the Visionary Celebrity Series radio programs that HealthyLife.Net Positive Radio Network hosts is Mind Health Medicine with Bernie Siegel. Dr. Siegel, who prefers to be called Bernie, one of the world's foremost physicians, best-selling authors, and motivational speakers, is a compassionate, caring and loving advocate for individuals who want to take an active role in their own healing process. Bernie created a sanctuary of resources and retreats based upon the science of mind-body-spirit medicine when he founded Exceptional Cancer Patients, ECaP -- where people facing the challenges of cancer and other chronic illnesses can discover and celebrate the potential of balance, inner peace and wholeness.

On the first Tuesday of every month, at 9am PST, listeners to the live radio program can call in and ask Bernie's advice on personal issues regarding health and healing. The HealthyLife.Net mission description reads, HealthyLife.Net is dedicated to providing all-positive radio programs to expand your mind, help your health and lift your spirit - without sensationalism and very little controversy. Our mission is to help eliminate fear, advance positive thought and encourage the concept that we are all one - here for the greater good of all. Exactly the kind of work Bernie has been doing for years. Sounds like a perfect match. If you cannot listen to the live radio program, the shows are archived for listening at your convenience.