“Cancer Is The Great Revealer”: Survivor Amy Grantham On What Cancer Taught Her

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An unexpected lesson breast cancer survivor Amy Grantham learned from her experience with the disease is how to weed out “the bullshitters.” Amy, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was just 31 years old, says that cancer can really reveal who is there for you, and who isn’t. Speaking honestly, Amy said that cancer straight up sucks, and it’s important to have people around you who really care. Lucky for her, though, she had a great family support system and a great group of friends to help her out at home, in New York City.

“Throughout my entire treatment, I really had the most supportive friends and family,” Amy says. “My family is mostly out of town, in Florida, but they were in touch with me all the time … and my friends here just rallied around me.”

A good support system makes a world of difference. Whether it’s to go with you to doctor’s appointments, pick you up after treatment, or just to lounge around your apartment so that you don’t have to be alone after really tough days — everybody needs some form of support.

Amy also says the disease quickly let her know the difference between reliable friends, and expendable ones. “Cancer is the great revealer, in a way, of people’s true character,” she says. “…I very quickly learned who was really there in my life and who was just kind of on the outskirts … it cut right through to the people who are most important in my life.”

“It really shows you who your true blue friends are, and who the bullshitters are, and … bye! Nobody’s got time for that when you have cancer,” Amy says.

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