My First Ebook Addresses Needs of Breast Cancer Caregivers

Ninety-nine out of 100 breast cancer victims, according to accepted statistics, are women, which means that men are by far the most likely primary caregivers. And yet men are the most inept at asking for help, especially in taking care of themselves.

With that idea in mind, I’m pleased to announce release of the smashwords.com and amazon.com ebook versions of Your Partner Has Breast Cancer: 21 Ways to Keep Sane as a Support Person on Your Journey from Victim to Survivor. It is available for free from smashwords.com through July 7, the end of the July 4^th weekend. I invite anyone with any passing interest in breast cancer or its caregivers to download it in your favorite version.

My request: Please give it a review on smashwords.com and amazon.com in the next two weeks and encourage your favorite breast cancer organization to provide a link to the smashwords.com site on their resources page.

In its original version, released in Fall 2000, Your Partner Has Breast Cancer was written to satisfy my own need to figure out how to keep sane while I was coping with Emily’s breast cancer adventure and also losing my job during that summer. The first draft was finished at the hospital while Emily was receiving her final chemotherapy treatment.

This newly revised and expanded second edition is even better. It includes

•  Expanded discussion of the 21 ways;
• “The Cancer Journals,” a section I added for support people to use as a guide and an inspiration to write and share their own journals;
• A list of additional resources to help the support person keep sane; and
• A new focus on becoming a survivor, not just being a victim.

While the breast cancer patient is the designated victim, with good reason, the support person, the caregiver, is the silent victim, the one who takes on both shares of the household chores; answers questions from well-wishers; assumes double income responsibility; becomes both parents; feeds, clothes, and washes the designated victim; sleeps less; and is always the pillar of strength, even when he or she doesn’t feel like a pillar of strength.

Your Partner Has Breast Cancer is dedicated to the silent victims—especially husbands, who form by far the largest bloc of support persons and yet are the most inept at asking for help.

I know from my own experience. When I needed help for myself, I found a lot of material on how I could help Emily but nothing on how I could help myself. This book is what I needed then; I am confident it is exactly what you need now. You can’t help your partner if you aren’t helping yourself.”

By addressing the emotional needs of the main support person, Your Partner Has Breast Cancer fills an important void that social workers, religious leaders, support people, surgeons, and nursing staff agree has been empty for too long.

“Ken has in a thoughtful and caring way shared effective ways that worked for him as he was a great husband and father supporting his wife and children in his family’s battle against breast cancer. I am confident that these ways will have a powerful impact in helping all support people, but especially guys who may be struggling, to be loving partners as they battle breast cancer in their families.”—Marc Heyison, President/Founder, Men Against Breast Cancer

“All I can say is wow! I found this booklet helpful, informative, moving, and clearly a labor of love.”—Dr. Helen Pass, Director, Division of Breast Surgery, and Co-Director of Women’s Breast Center, Stamford Hospital, Stamford, CT

Download it today. And please take a few minutes to share your review with others.

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