Two-Timed: An Adolescent Cancer Memoir

About the Book

“The journals are those of a girl I once knew – who had cancer and wrote about her experiences. She wanted to share her story, in a way that would have helped her: in a book about having cancer as a teen – written by a teen who experienced it. She wasn’t lost in battle, but she’s been gone a long time; and I haven’t been able to forget her, or let her go. The story seems unfamiliar, and yet I know it by heart. It feels like yesterday, but seems like a lifetime ago. It’s the story I never wrote – because it was already written; and at the heart of it is my journey with cancer: a muse, a curse, and a blessing. I’ve read the book before, but I never closed the first chapter: a book of journals – written by a girl who had cancer.” Cancer is a part of my story, and being a survivor is part of my identity, but it is not my entire identity as I felt it was when I was younger. At the end of my second treatment, I decided I was going to write my story and publish it. I even thought of the perfect title for my book: Two-Timed: An Adolescent Cancer Memoir. I thought of it because I felt two-timed by my own body, whose very defense system had attacked itself, and it had happened to me twice. But I didn’t write the story. The years went by, and I decided I could not very well write an “adolescent memoir” when I was well into my twenties, but I still had my journals – all the journals. Several more years elapsed until now – twenty three years after the journey began – I am finally “writing” the story.

About the Author

Danielle DuChateau has been a writer for most of her life, with particular interest in the genres of creative non-fiction and memoirs. In Two-Timed: An Adolescent Cancer Memoir, she tells her story in an honestand intimate manner – through private journals, written from the time of her diagnosis, until after the end of treatment. She was diagnosed with Stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1997, less than a month after her fourteenth birthday. After almost a year and a half in remission, the cancer relapsed, and she underwent chemotherapy, radiation, and an autologous stem cell transplant. She has lived in Colorado since being adopted from Korea at thirteen months, and is close to her parents and two older brothers, who supported her through treatment. She is an advocate for the implementation of survivorship programs which specifically address the long-term emotional needs of adult survivors of childhood cancer. She appreciates having the opportunity to connect with fellow patients and survivors. Her cancer has been in remission for twenty years.