Sylvia Weinstock has some pretty incredible stories. As a cake designer to the stars, she had a very full — and at times, chaotic — career, but she handled it all with grace. Sylvia has been through cancer two times, and she still carries on with the most amazing, positive attitude. We could all learn a thing or two from her.
Sylvia gave up the cake business when her husband became seriously ill — and it became apparent that he didn’t have much longer to live. What’s more, while Sylvia was in the process of losing her husband, she was also facing a lung cancer diagnosis. “Recently, I had lung cancer,” Sylvia told SurvivorNet. “Non-smoker … but lung cancer. Whether that was due to being down at 9/11 … well, we’ll figure that one out … I went to Weill-Cornell, and then I said, ‘I have to leave, because my husband’s dying.’ So, I walked out on the second day with stitches, and I went home to be with my husband as he died, and then I went back to have the stitches removed, and to have the lung operation.”
Sylvia simply refers to that heart-wrenching time as a bad week. She also mentioned that her surgeon at Weill-Cornell was Dr. Brendon Stiles, a contributor here at SurvivorNet, and how comfortable she felt putting her life into the hands of a man she trusted so fully. The doctor-patient relationship is a really important part of the cancer journey. And, as with everything else in her life, Sylvia had a pleasantly positive outlook on her own doctor-patient experience.
“You take it all with a grain of salt,” Sylvia said, commenting on her “bad week” with lung cancer. “And you say, ‘I’m here and I am definitely a survivor, and I will be a survivor of anything that crosses my path.’ I am now 89, and I am looking forward to being 90 — and then some.”
Update: Sylvia Weinstock passed away at age 91
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
Sylvia Weinstock has some pretty incredible stories. As a cake designer to the stars, she had a very full — and at times, chaotic — career, but she handled it all with grace. Sylvia has been through cancer two times, and she still carries on with the most amazing, positive attitude. We could all learn a thing or two from her.
Sylvia gave up the cake business when her husband became seriously ill — and it became apparent that he didn’t have much longer to live. What’s more, while Sylvia was in the process of losing her husband, she was also facing a lung cancer diagnosis. “Recently, I had lung cancer,” Sylvia told SurvivorNet. “Non-smoker … but lung cancer. Whether that was due to being down at 9/11 … well, we’ll figure that one out … I went to Weill-Cornell, and then I said, ‘I have to leave, because my husband’s dying.’ So, I walked out on the second day with stitches, and I went home to be with my husband as he died, and then I went back to have the stitches removed, and to have the lung operation.”
Read More Sylvia simply refers to that heart-wrenching time as a bad week. She also mentioned that her surgeon at Weill-Cornell was
Dr. Brendon Stiles, a contributor here at SurvivorNet, and how comfortable she felt putting her life into the hands of a man she trusted so fully. The doctor-patient relationship is a really important part of the cancer journey. And, as with everything else in her life, Sylvia had a pleasantly positive outlook on her own doctor-patient experience.
“You take it all with a grain of salt,” Sylvia said, commenting on her “bad week” with lung cancer. “And you say, ‘I’m here and I am definitely a survivor, and I will be a survivor of anything that crosses my path.’ I am now 89, and I am looking forward to being 90 — and then some.”
Update: Sylvia Weinstock passed away at age 91
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
