Stories

This article is for those who are about to embark on this journey, or those working with patients dealing with bladder cancer. Why read it? Simple. Knowledge is power. In this case, knowing what may lie ahead when your body has become the home for cancer cells is important. Hopefully,… Read More

My dad, Simon Lowy, was born July 3, 1929, in the Bronx, NY, to Helen and David Lowy. He had one brother. My dad played ball on the streets—stick ball—they used the sewer tops as the bases. My dad had many friends growing up. Wendy Sloane and her dad, Simon… Read More

A very happy Annmarie with her grandson I am a schoolteacher at a high school in Mashpee, Massachusetts. I started to have symptoms in May 2018. I was at school and I got a sharp pain in my kidney area and I thought, “Oh, kidney stones.” I knew something wasn’t… Read More

This story has been provided by Bill Seavey.  It has been edited for brevity. How does an active tennis playing and hiking/biking early 70 year old white male–who never had any bad health habits–get diagnosed with a particularly virulent form of cancer about which medical professionals can’t very often definitively… Read More

I am a nephrologist and have been practicing medicine since 1976, so I look at my bladder cancer journey somewhat differently than others might.  I was having some difficulty urinating and in the process of having my prostate looked at, my doctor came out afterwards and said, “Oh, by the… Read More

The Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network is pleased to welcome one of our two Chapel Hill Walk to End Bladder Cancer Ambassadors, Leslie Watts.  Dr. Matt Milowsky is also a Walk Ambassador.  The Chapel Hill Walk will take place on May 2, 2020. Leslie told BCAN: My husband and I… Read More

I was diagnosed with stage IV bladder cancer in April 0f 2012.  I was 34 years old.  I had been in and out of the hospital prior to that because I could not urinate.  As it turned out, I had tumors wrapped around part of my bladder. When the doctor… Read More

I remember when my mother turned to me and broke the news. Daddy has cancer. This news stung like news had never stung before. It was the news that my father could not bring himself to tell me. It was the news that ultimately turned our home into a hospital-like… Read More

Kimberly and her mom at the 2018 Walk to End Bladder Cancer in Washington, DC. My father was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2012, just days after his 58th birthday. He lost his mother to the disease years before I was born. Right after his diagnosis, I remember telling myself,… Read More