Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 4 #HAWMC

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Day four of the WEGO Health Activist Writer’s Month which I have signed up for – a month dedicated to the art of writing about health. Today’s writing prompt:

 I write about my health because…

The Wounded Storyteller is the title of a book by Arthur Frank which portrays  individuals  who live with some form of illness or disability in what he terms  “remission society.”  His basic premise is that we are more than mere “victims” of a disease but that we are “wounded storytellers” who tell our stories to make sense of our suffering and thereby find healing.

This then is the story behind why I write about my health – to make sense of my own journey, and also, in the hope others on the same path may find some resonance and the knowledge that they are not alone.

Cancer strikes a severe blow at our sense of self and our sense of past, present and future. The apparent randomness of a cancer diagnosis shakes our very sense of identity to the very core and nothing will ever feel certain again. As we tell our story, we rebuild our wounded selves, learning to integrate our past, present and futures selves. Learning how others walked this path can enrich our own journey of discovery.

In The Wounded Storyteller, Frank quotes something quite beautiful from nobel peace prize winner and theologian, Albert Schweitzer, and each time I read this quote it reminds me of why I became a patient advocate and health writer.
Whoever among us has learned through personal experience what pain and anxiety really are must help to ensure that those out there who are in … need obtain the same help that once came to (her). (She) no longer belongs to (herself )alone; (she) has become the (sister )of all who suffer.


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