Telling your loved ones you’ve been diagnosed with a disease can be heartbreaking. But telling young loved ones can feel nearly impossible. Beverlye Hyman Fead knows that pain all too well. After losing her mother and two sisters to cancer, Beverlye was determined not to become a statistic herself. She stayed fit and took excellent care of herself, so when stomach pains led to an unexpected diagnosis of Stage IV, metastasized, inoperable cancer, she was stunned.
After some soul-searching, Beverlye and her doctors decided to try an experimental treatment. Nine years later, she was alive and well—and determined to pay it forward. She created a short film, Stage IV, Living With Cancer, featuring people facing cancer while maintaining a positive outlook. Beverlye has also written a book about how grandparents can talk to young children about cancer (“Nana, What’s Cancer?“). And she’s been inspired by her journey to get back to the other things she loves — painting and poetry.
