Book excerpt: As a busy single mother, leasehold manager, and law student, Alero Dabor thought the exhaustion plaguing her through the summer of 2006 needed no further explanation. But a chance examination lead to a breast cancer diagnosis, and suddenly the demands of her health would be balanced against her responsibilities to her family and her studies. In a series of journal entries written from the time of her diagnosis in July through Spring 2007, Alero shares the many faces of her cancer: her hopes and fears, physical, emotional, and financial challenges, the support she received through her family from London to West Africa, the strength provided by her faith. Her physical, spiritual, and emotional journey leads her through the initial numbness of shock at her diagnosis to the point where she takes command of her cancer and the course of her treatment. Alero has since become a cancer advocate, and shares how her experience as a mother and cancer survivor has made her someone who can give a voice to others.