HEADSTRONG: A Story of Conquests and Celebrations . . . Living Through Chemotherapy

At 43, Blumberg had a mastectomy; five years later, she views her repression of stress and grief at earlier points in her life as the key factor in developing the disease. She is equally certain of what pulled her through: being headstrong. ""I was going to survive . . . and to get on with the business of living and living joyously."" With the help of her support systems (her natural family, her ""family of choice,"" allies in women's groups, and others), Blumberg weathered an exceptionally stormy two-year course of chemotherapy and is today free from recurrence of cancer. Her message is that we all have such resources: ""the problem is to identify and tap them."" As a Cleveland radio interviewer, an extremely active volunteer worker (for women's rights, historic restoration, Jewish and Israeli causes), and a strongly religious woman, Blumberg had perhaps more than the usual resources to draw on; her accomplishment, as she explains it, was to see her activities as positive and life-enhancing, rather than as additional stressors. A brief, activist approach to the ordeal--best for strong-willed, involved others.