The Ripple Effect: How a Positive Attitude and a Caring Community Helped Save My Life

Publisher Marketing: The author, Steven Lewis, in superb life-long health, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a disease with a survival rate of only 5%. In spite of this, Steven and his wife struggled to achieve and deliberately maintain an extremely positive attitude. This choice started a "ripple effect" that created an exceptionally caring and upbeat community of family, relatives and friends and enabled this community to return even more positive energy to Steven. The story became even more intense when Steven endured a second bout of pancreatic cancer that metastasized to his liver. Surviving a second bout of pancreatic cancer is so rare that no statistics are kept. Today, Steven is cancer free, in excellent health and works out strenuously. Virtually all of us, at some point, will experience extreme life difficulties involving circumstances such as severe illness, injuries, accidents, divorce or natural disasters. A positive attitude can help us think clearly, be solution oriented and ultimately prevail. Whether Steven physically survived or not, an attitude of complaint and negativity would have shattered his emotional life and that of his family. Steven's choice was to stay positive and upbeat in spite of his situation. What would you have done? Contributor Bio:  Lewis, Steven Steven Lewis is a freelance writer, college mentor, devoted husband, Zen dad, and, from what we hear, an easygoing father-in-law. He is the author of Zen and the Art of Fatherhood and The ABCs of Real Family Values. After 35 years of a happy marriage, purchasing a whopper of an anniversary diamond for his sweetheart, and planning and paying for the weddings of three daughters, he has come to know practically everything a man should know about engagements, weddings and the roots of domestic bliss.