Melissa Gorman creates a supportive resource for people living with cancer

By Valerie Hardy

United by Unique” is the three-year theme for the annual World Cancer Day, which is held on Feb. 4. The alliterative credo reflects the fact that behind every diagnosis is a distinctly individual human story.

The campaign aims to raise awareness and inspire action, specifically toward placing people at the center of cancer care – something that resonates with Melissa Gorman, who wrote and published Contemplating Courage: A Reflective Journaling Companion When Living with Cancer.

Gorman, a 2014 Downers Grove South High School graduate, is a Physician Assistant (PA) in inpatient medical oncology in Milwaukee. She said she did not know many people affected by cancer while she was growing up but “was always interested in the oncology field.”

This interest was solidified when, as a student at Marquette University, she had the opportunity to complete rotations in various medical specializations within clinic and hospital settings. In her early work with people with cancer, she observed “how, even with all they were going through, they held so much gratitude and were open to a lot of meaningful conversations,” she said.

Gorman explained how, during goals of care conversations, her patients would often express that they wished they had done different treatments or had known to ask certain questions. “It can be heartbreaking to hear sentiments like ‘I wish I would have done something different’ when we can’t do anything different because it’s too late,” she said.

She recognized that while it is not always possible to cure patients’ cancer, proactively providing them with a guided space to reflect on their wishes, journey through cancer, and more was a way she could help, even if in a “small capacity.”

“I wanted a platform that wasn’t me telling people how to feel, but for people to reflect on what’s important to them before coming to their healthcare providers…a way for them to have a real seat at the table of their healthcare,” Gorman said.

She had previously considered writing a guidebook for living with cancer but thought that would happen later in her career. However, in the fall of 2023, she was home working on Canva, and “one thing led to another,” she said.

The journal began to take shape, and within nine months, it was complete. “I was passionate about it, so it came together pretty quickly,” she said.

Contemplating Courage includes over 100 reflection prompts and allows people “to reflect on who they are separate from their cancer,” Gorman explained.

She recognizes there are many resources for people with cancer and is humbled her book is among them. She clarified, however, that Contemplating Courage is “not to be in place of a therapist or physician but is helpful to have as a secondary support. Talking and writing about things tends to be therapeutic…and having a space to do that can be really helpful in the grand scheme of the stress that comes with a cancer diagnosis.”

Gorman said some of the journal’s prompts are cancer-specific, but many can be generalized, so Contemplating Courage can also be a resource for people with other chronic illnesses.

It may also be a helpful resource for people receiving, or with loved ones receiving, palliative care. “Whether from cancer or not, we all have to face what end-of-life care looks like for ourselves or for people we care for,” Gorman said.

To correct misconceptions many people have about hospice care and lessen the fear and anxiety that comes from their conversations about it, Gorman included a section about hospice care in Contemplating Courage. There is also a brief section on code status (also known as a Resuscitation Status Order).

Contemplating Courage was published on July 9. Since then, it has been available to patients in the hospital where Gorman works and online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Gorman said Contemplating Courage hopefully will be available at Anderson’s Bookshop and the gift shop at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove soon as well.

The paperback version of the journal costs $14.99, and the hardcover edition costs $19.99. Gorman said a portion of all profits is donated to the American Cancer Society.