Cancer travel

On Monday my friend D came to town. She was just accepted to a phase III clinical trial for a breast cancer vaccine at the University if Washington. That means she'll be travelling from New York to Seattle, at her own expense, once a month for the next seven months.

D and I are online buddies. We met last March, at a retreat for young women with metastatic breast cancer, and have corresponded with the participants ever since. But as soon as she knew she would be in Seattle, she got in touch so we could get together face-to-face.

We spent a lovely afternoon and evening walking the dog, cooking and enjoying a tasty dinner, drinking wine and talking. It was a pleasure to be able to talk about real issues with someone who gets it -- pain management, death and dying, leaving a legacy.

I hope D and I will see each other every month when she comes to Seattle for the trial. The world can be very small when you have something big like cancer in common!