Gaining Self Empowerment During CancerIs it possible for cancer to help people to gain self empowerment? Find out how Imogen's Gough's experiences with breast cancer lead to the creation of the powerful book I Put the Can in Cancer, and write a cancer poem, the Cancer ABC's that will inspire and empower other cancer patients to also put the CAN in Cancer! How the Book StartedI Put the CAN in Cancer started out as an answer to a question. During a telephone interview with a radio station during my long and snowy winter of chemo, I was explaining how my oncologist had told me that skiing during chemotherapy was really not a good idea. CJAD Radio host Andrew Carter replied "but I thought I heard that you were snowboarding on the weekend?" I replied, "Yes, well, my oncologist said no skiing, so I figured snowboarding would be ok." He laughed. "So how did it go?" I replied again, "Apart from a few inspirational wipe-outs, it was a lot of fun." I paused for a moment as I was struck by a brainwave. "You know what it is, Andrew?" I paused again to build up the momentum. "What?" he replied, quite predictably. "Andrew, I put the CAN in cancer..." And so it began. I realized that even with cancer, and chemo, and all the side effects of all the drugs and treatments, if I looked at it a certain way, there were so many things I could do regardless of the annoying medical condition that had temporarily taken over my life. Rather than being inspirational, I Put the CAN in Cancer is empowering. We don't need inspiration to be ourselves – we need empowerment to bring ourselves back to the surface. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror, baldness, chemo-bloat and all, suck it up, and say... "But even with cancer, there are so many things I CAN do..."  How could the book also help you or your loved ones?
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