Sunday, August 26, 2012

You're Still A Hero To Me, Lance

While many people are bashing Lance Armstrong for backing down against USADA's allegations of doping, I am standing here to defend the dude. Like the title of his inspiring book, "It's Not About the Bike," my admiration for Mr. Armstrong has nothing to do with his cycling career.


While I respect that he was so determined and successful, and although I don't believe he should lose his 7 titles, my respect for Lance is because of his personal fight against cancer. He was a 25-year-old battling a cancer his doctors secretly did not believe he could beat, to being a world class champion. Impressive. He has not been silent about his journey back to health either. He has shared his story and given incredible support to  the cancer society with his LIVESTRONG program.

livestrong 


Armstrong's book brought me a lot of comfort when little could comfort me. Reading about his journey, absorbing the words I needed to read, it allowed me to feel like someone understood. Someone knew what this fear was like. As a book lover, I needed to read this book.

I blogged about my love for this book in the past. Here and here. However, with Lance being in the news for something so negative, I felt like I needed to shed light on the inspiring advice his book brought me during a very dark time in my life.


Instead of rewriting what I already blogged about in the past (see links above!) I am simply going to post a few of my favorite quotes.  

Then I am going to do my first ever giveaway in hopes that Lance brings comfort to YOU.

"What are my chances? It was a question I would repeat over and over. But it was irrelevant, wasn't it? It didn't matter, because the medical odds don't take into account the unfathomable. There is no proper way to estimate somebody's chances, and we shouldn't try, because we can never be entirely right, and it deprives people of hope. Hope that is the only antidote of fear" (95).

"I wanted this picture so that when I got better, I would never forget how sick I've been," I said. "You have to fight" (150). 

"Cancer does one of two things to a relationship: it either brings you closer together, or it tears you apart" (166).

"You know, I would rather have one year of wonderful than seventy years of mediocre. That's how I feel about it. Life's an unknown. You don't know. Nobody knows" (181).

"I'll spend the rest of my life puzzling over my survival. Cancer no longer consumes my life, my thoughts, or my behavior, but the changes it wrought are in me, unalterable" (288).

Now...it's time for YOU to win your own copy of this book. Follow the directions and I'll announce the winner next Sunday! Good luck! XO!




a Rafflecopter giveaway

2 comments:

RBS said...

I'm with you CP. I read this book when I really needed to get a different grip on being at Stage IV. and what he wrote helped me more than anything else did at the time.

Unknown said...

Just downloaded a sample of this book and am loving it. Thanks for sharing.

Megan