https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1211#M132 And for a book called 'It's not about the bike' there sure is a lot of grandstanding about being a sporting here. I found it to be quite deceitful. Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:47:40 GMT harker 2011-06-05T11:47:40Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1204#M125 I had to share this with everyone. I just finished reading Lance Armstrong's biography "its not about the bike" and its inspiring'. for those that don't know, Lance developed testicular cancer and was given little chance of recovery. He did recover and went onto win the tour France several times. A grueling bicycle race. His story is of hope no matter what the odds and of transformation through the cancer journey. It also highlights the bond within the cancer community. take care, be strong. Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:21:11 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1204#M125 Quijote 2009-03-11T01:21:11Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1205#M126 I am an almost 9 year survivor and have read  Lance's books.  As a group facilitator, his books are the ones I always recommend to members.  To have faced the challenges he did, with an amazing attitude and a never give in philosophy, he truly is an inspiration and great motivator for us all.  The work he does today through his foundation is a credit to him.  A great advocate for all of us in this special club.  Hope and yellow have  a new meaning because of Lance.  Stay strong, stay focused and LiveStrong everyone. Lyn     Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:22:11 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1205#M126 lsmith 2009-03-11T01:22:11Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1206#M127 I'm a cyclist and a massive fan of Lance. His story is inspiring to me, not for what he did on the bike (great as it was), but for the unbelievable job he does at using his fame and fortune to further and promote the war on cancer. Someone may win the TdF 7 times in the future but his status as an inspiring cancer fighting pioneer will never be in doubt. "Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit however, it lasts forever." - Lance Armstrong LiveStrong everybody! Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:08:51 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1206#M127 2011-04-04T13:08:51Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1207#M128 Thank you and Thank you. I have picked up Lance's bio "it not about the bike" from library and looking forward to reading and being inspired. I have also found another book which is really hitting the notes with me, "from this moment on" by arlene cotter. I was driving home from the library and TODAY I thought, "im not a victim Im a survivor", since joining the survivors c-connect I have been doing one thing wrong, I have had the mind set of a VICTIM.........Yes a lightbulb moment for ME..........I have been CHOOSING VICTIM however i am now EARNING SURVIVOR.......Thank you Quijote for sharing. Jules Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:02:25 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1207#M128 Jules_68 2011-06-02T05:02:25Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1208#M129 Isn't it interesting how we can all see things so differently. The Lance Armstrong book really got up my nose. I found his aggression quite off-putting and I wonder what effect it has had on the community outside cancer. I think he encourages a view that one must 'fight' cancer and 'win' some kind of 'battle'. Jane McGrath's pre-recorded final words were sadly full of that sort of rubbish. At one stage he says 'Cancer sure picked the wrong body' or words to that effect. Really, Lance? You were not kidding me one little bit. Anyway, Sally Jenkins wrote the book. (That was me being a bitch.) H Thu, 02 Jun 2011 07:26:52 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1208#M129 harker 2011-06-02T07:26:52Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1209#M130 Hey great book! My physiotherapist recommended this book to me years ago. I wasn't ready to read it until last year. I too got the feeling he was battling quite hard against cancer. I guess everyone sees cancer differently. It can be your enemy or friend. When I say friend I mean an eye opener to slow down and let you know you need a break. In my case, 3 times it told me to slow down. So I did for the healing process. So cancer is seen differently by everyone and fought against in different ways. What ever works. :) Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:53:15 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1209#M130 Annie333 2011-06-03T10:53:15Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1210#M131 G'day Harker, I'm with you. Lance Armstrong and his whole foundation get right up my nose. His words "Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit however, it lasts forever." are absolute rubbish. It is saying that those who end up with chronic pain are quitters and have themselves to blame. If pain responsible from trauma does not subside, and it will not it unless it is managed properly, then it becomes chronic - the nerves get used to sending the pain messages and you are stuck with it. You can either undergo expensive Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, or you can use analgesics like morphine for the rest of your life. So it is important that pain is not ignored, but is managed properly. Pain should be one of the vital signs that are monitored when you are in hospital, it should be on the agenda of every multidisciplinary team meeting, it should be part of all correspondence between specialist and GP's. If you continue to have pain you are not a quitter, you just have not had good pain management. I do not know what stage or how advanced Lance's testicular cancer was. But I do know that in his age group it is essentially a curable cancer - it has become so over the last forty years due to better surgery and better drug therapy, particularly combinations using the platinum drugs. Now he may have had very advanced disease, but if that is the case then he was suffering enormous medical neglect, which I doubt would be the case with an elite athlete. Like you Harker, I object to the use of a military metaphor, as the flip side of that is if you don't get over it you didn't fight hard enough - what rubbish. If you want to read some inspiring books there are far better ones out there. Ones that show people creating a new life for themselves, one that includes their cancer and being really inspiring. If you are bitchy Harker, so am I so let's do it together. Cheers Sailor An incorrectly identified mark is a hazard, not an aid, to navigation. Alton B. Moody Sun, 05 Jun 2011 10:28:21 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1210#M131 Sailor 2011-06-05T10:28:21Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1211#M132 And for a book called 'It's not about the bike' there sure is a lot of grandstanding about being a sporting here. I found it to be quite deceitful. Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:47:40 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1211#M132 harker 2011-06-05T11:47:40Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1212#M133 Wow, I just love this place where we are all free to say what we mean. Fantastic. Iam so with your thoughts about fighting not really equaling winning. Its like the ding dong who tells you your christian faith isn't strong enough. Buls..t. Sun, 05 Jun 2011 12:20:58 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1212#M133 exhausted 2011-06-05T12:20:58Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1213#M134 Hi everyone, I started to read Lance Armstrong "It's not about the bike" and didn't get past page 20. I actually didn't continue with the book, but went in the opposite direction and am reading and underlining phases from Louise Hay "The power within you". I believe Lance's book would have been a great read for me at diagnosis and before surgery as it is really aggressive and "you won't beat me" attitude, but now that Im 3mths post cancer, I find that i am sensitive to aggression and its important for me to find "my" own affirmations". Thank you for your opinions and knowledge, as it made me stop and assess what healing information I wanted to accept. I so love this site that we are all secure enough to participate "our" thoughts. Thanks everyone. Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:16:33 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1213#M134 Jules_68 2011-07-29T10:16:33Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1214#M135 I read the book and wasn't very impressed; it wasn't about the bike it was all about LANCE the aggressor. On the other hand I might find I remember something useful from it one day. Cycling/sporting friends love the book. The tour de france was on at the same time as i was reading it, that was interesting.. The process of reading it and picking it up and acknowledging I was in the cancer realm was difficult, that was probably more useful than the actual content. Cheers Jan Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:35:01 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1214#M135 2011-08-26T08:35:01Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1215#M136 I was interested to read It's Not About The Bike after reading the various opinions about it. I liked it early on in the book when he referred to himself as "An Inspiration To Us All" because he seemed to be making fun of this view of himself. But then later on he seemed to be buying into it which I did not like. However, while I hate the term "inspiring" I did find the book somewhat encouraging that he got back to the top level after his treatment. I am an athlete and I don't know if I'm going to get back to where I was before. I did not like how he thought it was for the best that he got cancer and now he is an improved person because of it. Maybe thinking like that helps him to cope but I would not like to think that way about myself. I did not mind his aggressive attitude towards fighting the cancer. That is just how his personality is & he did specifically say that your outcome was not due to your attitude. Overall I liked the book. It was interesting and easy to read. But it was only one person's experience of cancer and while there is obviously common ground everyone is different. Sometimes I have thought to myself that I know what it is like having cancer, but really I only know what it was like for me to have cancer. Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:46:45 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1215#M136 Allicat 2011-09-11T03:46:45Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1216#M137 I haven't read the book. You said that you didn't like the bit about it being best that he got the cancer because it made him a better person .I have come across that attitude before. It's certainly not how I think or feel. Having cancer changed me in some ways ,some for the better ,some not. I may read the book some time. I used to read every night before cancer but not at all since. Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:55:59 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1216#M137 SILLY 2011-09-12T22:55:59Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1217#M138 I haven't read the book. You said that you didn't like the bit about it being best that he got the cancer because it made him a better person .I have come across that attitude before. It's certainly not how I think or feel. Having cancer changed me in some ways ,some for the better ,some not. I may read the book some time. I used to read every night before cancer but not at all since. Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:57:48 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1217#M138 SILLY 2011-09-12T22:57:48Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1218#M139 I haven't read the book. You said that you didn't like the bit about it being best that he got the cancer because it made him a better person .I have come across that attitude before. It's certainly not how I think or feel. Having cancer changed me in some ways ,some for the better ,some not. I may read the book some time. I used to read every night before cancer but not at all since. Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:58:03 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1218#M139 SILLY 2011-09-12T22:58:03Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1219#M140 Any new thoughts about Lance with the recent drug exposure and consequent media frenzy? I've found it interesting to hear everyone go to town on him, some labelling him as a tyrant, pathological lier and even a psychopath. I have pondered on the likelihood and degree of mental illness, in particular PTSD, post his cancer experience, that has possessed him, or exacerbated personality tendencies to push to extremes. In my experiences, once gone through cancer, the world becomes a very strange and surreal place. I can see how it is possible that values, morals, ups and even downs become completely void. Sarah Sun, 03 Feb 2013 04:59:39 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1219#M140 sarah 2013-02-03T04:59:39Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1220#M141 I've wondered if he felt that since his chemo meant he had had drugs that were been detrimental to his cycling ability it was fair enough to even that out by taking drugs that improved his cycling ability. Sun, 03 Feb 2013 07:03:22 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1220#M141 Allicat 2013-02-03T07:03:22Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1221#M142 I think he is quite pathetic and I feel sorry for him. He 'confessed' to Oprah that it was his competitiveness that drove him on and into dubious territory. Then he says he wants to be forgiven so he can compete again! You can't unscramble an egg, Lance. You need a new egg. H Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:17:49 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1221#M142 harker 2013-02-03T21:17:49Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1222#M143 I also think he is quite pathetic but I don't feel sorry for him. He knew what he was doing and he was doing it before he was diagnosed with cancer and had chemo. There are plenty of examples of people who have offended the public rehabilitating themselves, they do it by keeping quiet and by ensuring they keep their noses clean for a good long period. No-one does it by taking up the activities in which they offended. I feel sorry for those who took him as a role model, particularly those in Australia, and linked their success to his. As Harker says, 'you can't unscramble and egg'. Cheers Sailor Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:52:51 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1222#M143 Sailor 2013-02-03T21:52:51Z https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1223#M144 Why when we click on this link are we taken to another page? I don't particularly mind participating in surveys, however, I do prefer it to be my choice to click or not! :) As for Lance, he isn't in my world and I am glad he survived cancer and got through it however he needed to. We have choices in life and we can choose to read and believe / adopt or we can choose not to. TO me it is always interesting to read how other people get through their diagnosis and sometimes I adopt their thoughts and ideas and at other times it gets discarded in my mental bin. Julie Mon, 04 Feb 2013 01:22:43 GMT https://onlinecommunity.cancercouncil.com.au/t5/New-Start-here/Lance-Armstrong/m-p/1223#M144 Jules2 2013-02-04T01:22:43Z