Alice Hardesty tells the story of her husband Jack's extraordinary healing from esophageal cancer in the 1980s, despite two "terminal" diagnoses. After conventional medicine failed to provide a cure, Jack tried every alternative and complementary treatment he could, including nutrition, acupressure and other kinds of bodywork, vitamins and enzymes, spiritual healing, and intensive psychotherapy. Alice accompanied and supported him throughout this journey, and found that, along with the physical healing, came the healing of their marriage.
Award-Winning Finalist in the Health: Cancer category of the 2015 International Book Awards.
PRAISE FOR AN UNCOMMON CANCER JOURNEY
In this emotionally honest memoir, Alice Hardesty writes about the two successive terminal diagnoses that her husband survived and the wide range of therapies tried.... Just as it helps to read about what other travelers, pilgrims, or explorers encounter when venturing into the unknown, so it can for those who find themselves on a cancer journey.
-Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., Jungian Analyst and Author, Close to the Bone: Cancer as a Soul Journey
My experience and my belief is that cancer often is a "soul event." Alice Hardesty's book offers us such a good example of how that looks in real life. ... Her story is compelling, illustrating what extraordinary experiences ordinary people can have.
-Jan Adrian, Executive Director of Healing Journeys
An Uncommon Cancer Journey is an unusual memoir about a subject that has been written about quite often. What makes it unique is not only the outcome for the author's very sick husband, but the journey through which they both travel-from conventional medicine to alternative treatment, to even more far-out alternative treatment.... This story is written with such remarkable clarity and honesty that readers will accept, and perhaps even want to pursue, roads to healing that are open to the truly open-minded.
-Judith Barrington, Poet, Memoirist, Author Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art
Alice Hardesty makes it very clear that anyone on a cancer journey-patients or family caregivers-cannot remain unchanged. ... This book is the author's unflinchingly honest personal story of her husband's diagnosis, their search for treatments, his recovery from a deadly illness, and both of their healing. ...people even with the worst kinds of cancer can be cured, sometimes in non-traditional ways; and a crushing blow of fate-"a cosmic kick"-can bring unexpected and profound gifts.
-Ruth Bolletino, Ph.D., Co-Director of Cancer as a Turning Point-Mind-Body Psychotherapy and Counseling Author, How to Talk with Family Caregivers about Cancer
