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OF TEARS AND TRIUMPHS: The Family Victory That Has Inspired Thousands of Cancer Patients by Georgia & Bud Photopulos Photopulos

OF TEARS AND TRIUMPHS: The Family Victory That Has Inspired Thousands of Cancer Patients

By

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 1988
Publisher: Congdon & Weed/Contemporary

As told in alternating sections by the Photopulos husband-and-wife team, this is an amazing story of Georgia Photopulos' triumph over severe medical traumas, of her crusade to help the similarly afflicted, and of a family's survival in the face of constant emotional, physical, and financial problems. In 1968, facing breast cancer, Georgia promised God that if He gave her the strength to survive, she ""would become a source of inspiration to sick and sorrowing people."" For the next 16 years, like a latter-day Job, she was hit by a series of operations and ailments: two radical mastectomies, removal of her ovaries, a complete hysterectomy, a brain operation, and near-fatal meningitis. Georgia's doctors and husband Bud attribute her survival to her faith, optimism, and perpetual good cheer; she inspired Bud to carry on despite exhaustion and financial and career problems. Both of their adopted children, now young adults, appear to be doing well, although the older (a boy) had to overcome crippling fears that he would lose a second mother. Despite everything, Georgia made good on her promise: in 1971, she established a 24-hour cancer hotline in Chicago, and soon became a mainstay on TV talk-shows and the lecture circuit. She is currently writing a syndicated newspaper column on health issues. Unfortunately, the Photopuloses relate their dramatic tale in curiously flat prose. Although Georgia's sense of humor flashes through, the family's triumph over daunting odds remains a mystery here. Perhaps, however, the seriously ill might garner inspiration and hope from this fearsome odyssey--and from the sensible advice for cancer patients and families with which the book concludes.