Dana-farber Cancer Institute

Tara Shuman didn’t necessarily set out to be a blogger, let alone a book author. But in the throes of a cancer diagnosis, she turned to writing as an outlet. Abby Morgan also turned to blogging. A painter since an early age, and an art teacher, writing carried less pressure than painting. “I don’t want everything that I do — any creative outlet I do — to have to be about cancer. I don’t want it to take over my identity,” Morgan says. “But it is hard to not have it be a part of the things that you create because cancer influences you in such a deep way.”