Not long ago, I read something by Roger Ebert, a skilled and insightful movie critic who has battled thyroid cancer and related conditions for a long time now, in which Ebert said roughly this: Cancer patients are widely seen as courageous. Presumably some are, but for most of us, the virtues others ascribe to us are not merited. The truth is, patients who live with advanced stage cancers have little choice in what we face; for most of us, life consists of putting one foot in front of the other, doing what you have to do and along the way, preserving and treasuring whatever small slices of normality you can. Like Ebert, I don't see much virtue in that.
Link to Work