What's so good about cancer?

(From Business Line)

"MAY you live all the days of your life". Thus begins the intro with a quote from Jonathan Swift in the book Cancer has its Privileges, by Christine Clifford.

It has all the stories of 'hope and laughter' to highlight what it means to be a survivor and why comedy has a place in cancer. Excerpts:

- It's a strange phenomenon what happens to people when they hear that a friend or loved one has cancer.

Most people don't know what to say. They don't want to say the wrong thing, so they end up saying nothing. A cycle of avoidance and denial only deepens the loneliness and isolation the cancer patient feels.

- Cancer does not just affect the patient. It permeates the home environment and reaches across state lines to pull every living relative into its path. Whatever the mix of families today, be they blended or not, everyone's life in the family will be turned upside down.

- "When told I would have to have a bilateral mastectomy upon receiving a diagnosis of cancer, my …