“Not everyone follows this route through conscious decision. Sometimes the disease itself leads us there. In Chinese, the notion of “crisis” is written as a combination of the two characters “danger” and “opportunity.” Cancer is so threatening that its effect is blinding; it is hard for us to grasp its creative potential. In many ways, my illness has changed my life for the better, and in a way that I could never have imagined when I thought that I was condemned. It started shortly after the diagnosis.”