By Blood Cancer United
Part 2 of the Storyectomy series: Real stories told onstage, in their own words.
(See Georgia's story in Part 1 here.)
What happened when Andrew shared his blood cancer story on stage
Most people don't expect to laugh during a conversation about cancer.
That's what makes Storyectomy so powerful.
Through storytelling, humor, and lived experience, people affected by blood cancer take the moments that changed their lives and share them in front of a live audience. What emerges is honest, human, and sometimes... surprisingly funny.
Together, we’re building a community-driven mental health initiative that uses storytelling, humor, connection, and lived experience to break stigma and bring people closer to themselves and each other.
Meet Andrew
Watch Andrew introduce himself—in his own words.
His story
Andrew approached blood cancer the way he approached every challenge as an athlete. Winners don't quit. He wasn't a quitter. Therefore, he was going to win.
It was the kind of reasoning that comes naturally to someone who spent a lifetime pushing through adversity.
Along the way, Andrew discovered that strength isn't measured only by victories. Strength can also look like accepting help, showing up for the people you love, and finding reasons to keep moving forward when life changes overnight. His diagnosis and experience actually brought him closer to his family and taught him to savor ordinary moments, because each day carried a little more meaning.
On stage, Andrew shares what was once the worst news of his life: a blood cancer diagnosis. He moves the audience to tears—of laughter, heartbreak, and everything between—as he recounts the people who carried him forward, including the smallest but most powerful source of strength of all: his daughter, Zoe.
On stage, Andrew revisits one of the hardest chapters of his life with the same humor and honesty that carried him through it.
Watch the performance
Andrew took the stage— and during his performance he shares stories that make the audience laugh, from self-diagnosing Google to the call from his oncologist: "Great news, it's lymphoma!" But beneath the humor is something more meaningful. As treatment became more difficult, Andrew found himself confronting fears far bigger than his own diagnosis. What followed gave him the strength to keep moving forward when he thought he had nothing left to give.
If this feels familiar
Andrew's experience reflects the many forms support can take, from family and friends to clinical care, peer connections, and trusted information. If any part of his story feels familiar, these resources can help:
- Reach out — Chat, email or call an Information Specialist, highly trained oncology social workers and nurses who can assist you through treatment, financial and social challenges.
- Check out — resources and support — Programs tailored for anyone navigating treatment, identity, and independence all at once.
- Get guidance — Care partners in all shapes and sizes from kids, friends and co-workers.
- Find mental health support — Support for regaining mental health, balance, and peace after intensive treatment for your overall well-being.
- Connect with peers — Safe spaces to meet others who understand the emotional and social complexities of living with blood cancer.
Each story is unique, but every one makes the next conversation a little easier to start.
About Storyectomy
Storyectomy is more than a program—it's “story making” mentorship between creative talents and writers with blood cancer survivors. It gives everyone, from care partners to healthcare professionals and supporters, the space to speak their truth, find healing, and discover that what feels isolating is often what connects us most. Turning the worst day of your life into a stage performance is entirely possible and a powerful way to process trauma through comedy or storytelling, a medical diagnoses and fear into powerful connection.
Transforming these moments from private struggles into shared understanding—reminding us that even the most isolating experiences can still make us laugh when it is shared with others. This blog highlights a special event where our storytellers shared their experience with vulnerability, courage, and sometimes even laughter. Their stories reflect the heart of Blood Cancer United: unity, empowerment, and hope.
Meet six extraordinary people who stepped onstage and offered us their truth. Their voices are shared exactly as they were spoken—raw, real, and powerful. In this shared space, storytellers like Georgia, Paul, Andrew, David and Ilana, transform deeply personal challenges into narratives that illuminate what it means to navigate blood cancer.
Through storytelling these truths aren’t just told; They’re witnessed, honored, and transformed into something that reminds us why laughter is one of the oldest forms of medicine we have.
Follow our Storyectomy series for their stories that span the emotional terrain of returning to school after physical changes (like massive hair loss), preparations for fertility options and treatments, and honoring the complexities of cultural identities. They shed light on the urgent need for research and funding, the heart behind fundraising, and the tenderness of an evolving parent-child relationship and switching roles as caregiver to patient. They speak to the disorientation of being treated in a children's hospital as a young adult, the daily realities of graft versus host disease, and the pressure of appearances and stereotypes of a cancer patient.
Learn about Storyectomy
(Coming soon watch our performers videos)
