I was logging out of yahoo and saw an article saying ‘celebrities who conquered cancer’, it was a must read. I read about Lisa Ray, Barbara Moori, and Lance Armstrong, while I was reading Lance’s article it stated that he has written a book as well about his recovery from the disease. I became more fascinated so I just googled it and read the review and that was enough to log on to flipkart.
Its not about the bike’ its a story of an athlete’s struggle on the peak of his career at the age of 25 from the disease called cancer. The word itself is devastating. How shattered one would feel when he goes for a check up and hears ‘ you have cancer’ and that was it for Lance Armstrong. World’s number one cyclist and 7 times champion of Tour de France. He tells everything right from his distorted childhood, his love for the bike and his various achievements and struggle that Lance and his mother did. It was so quick he writes, form hearing the words you have cancer, then getting the X-ray reports of the lungs where he was detected of tumours that were malignant to finally the brain surgery. It was the cancer of stage three and he had 3 percent survival chance, disclosed in the later chapters, the doctors didn’t tell him though. He fought like he never did, never in his cycling career. The chapters on chemotherapy that broke down a iron like athlete’s body is something you cannot miss out thinking all the time after you’ve read the book. I just lived through the book, all the chapters I could see him suffering and then recovering and winning the battle of life. The book cannot be rated high on literature stuff and writing but on humane aspect it’s a master piece ‘ a hope’ for the bearers of cancer and for the ones who have survived it. His wife kik too is a lady to watch I mean the patience she had and the way she supported Lance after his treatment to get back to his career is something we all should learn a lesson from. All she did was believe in him and in his potential to ride again and win.
A patient of cancer who had only 3% chances of survival, hits back and gets on track is what ‘its not about the bike’ narrates. After horrifying sessions of chemotherapy and his recovery in about an year, his phase of depression where nobody believed he could get back to professional cycling , all the odds that he faced but fought through is very stirring. Not only did he rode back but won the ‘Tour de france’ best of cycling on earth, a 21 days challenging and nerve racking race. He defeated the disease as well.
Live strong is the name of the foundation that he started,it tells you everything about the disease, right from diagnosis to the treatment and after care. Follow the link http://www.livestrong.org/
