I Am Not My Hair

In late March, while coronavirus cases surged in New York City, Shahonna Anderson, 40, was diagnosed with stage three cancer. She’d already had an orange-sized tumor removed from her chest, and now she faced daily radiation and two cycles of chemotherapy at the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai. “After five minutes of crying, I said, ‘Alright, we gotta do what we gotta do. So let’s go!’” she recalls. A born optimist, Ms. Anderson found herself pushed to the limit. To beat cancer, she would have to rely on friends and family like never before—even when asking for help was uncomfortable. In this interview, she talks about how that and learning to accept chemo’s impact on her body helped her become cancer-free.
Links

• Dong-Seok Daniel Lee, MD (Shahonna’s surgeon)
• Deborah B. Doroshow, MD, PhD (Shahonna’s oncologist)
• Kenneth Rosenzweig, MD (Shahonna’s radiation oncologist)
• The Tisch Cancer Institute
• Cancer Care at Mount Sinai
• Ensuring a Safe Mount Sinai

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Road to Resilience brings you stories and insights to help you thrive in a challenging world. From fighting burnout and trauma to building resilient families, we explore what’s possible when science meets the human spirit.