I'm Too Young to Have Breast Cancer!: Regain Control of Your Life, Career, Family, Sexuality, and Faith

I loved this book! Unfortunately I have two friends who are bc survivors and I've purchased several books on this topic. "I'm too Young to Have Breast Cancer" is the only one I have passed on to them. Other books seem to be about the "beautiful people" who get breast cancer and have every resource in the world. While the beautiful people deserve our best wishes and support too, Leibson-Hawkins' book is about real people who met this challenge head on, some of them on their own, and overcame it. I can't think of a more positive message. The women in this book range from the well off to a woman who had no health insurance to pay for her care. They are different races, religious, ages (all 40 and under). All of these women show strength and perseverance. I found inspiration in everyone of these 16 stories. I learned that the strength to survive can come from several different places (within yourself, friends, family, even your job). The author is not a survivor, but not every survivor is a writer. This book is extremely well-written and the author gives a voice to young survivors whose stories are still not heard.

This book is a quality, intelligent book that explores an issue that I haven't read about before. It focuses on the personal stories, the faces and lives behind young breast cancer victims. These life stories make the disease very real; whether or not we *like* everyone profiled is less important than the fact that these are all real people with their own approaches to the disease, their own levels of support systems, and their own (at times) emotional baggage. Obviously, I recommend this book incredibly highly to anyone who is dealing with this illness or has someone in their life (particularly someone young) dealing with this illness, but I also wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in people -- people who are persevering and struggling to deal with an illness that can strike anyone. A very well-done book, worth reading.