After Treatment has been publishing for six months, but it’s actually been around for over a year. 

In that year, I have spoken with more than 250 doctors, patients, survivors, financial advisers, careers coaches, and others. Every day, I wake up inspired to find something, anything that can help us. 

It’s been a thrill. Thank you. 

Despite the thrill, I recently came to the same conclusion so many other cancer survivors find: I can’t make cancer my entire life. 

Often, these interviews, your stories, and getting to know so many people wrecked by cancer take a mental toll. Just yesterday, news of James Van Der Beek’s death from cancer felt more intense and more personal than it should be.

Lesley Kailani Glenn agrees that focusing on cancer and only cancer can be too much.

Leslie is a metastatic breast cancer patient and survivor, who founded the online wellness community Project Life. She has dedicated nearly every second of her life to cancer in the last five years. But lately, she’s been finding more time for other things. 

“Make sure you don’t lose the other things that you enjoy doing. I love gardening, dabbling in my art room. I need those things so I can enter this space with the perspective of trying to serve this community,” says Lesley.

With Lesley’s words rattling around in my head, I’m excited to share that I’m heading back to a newsroom. Later this month, I am joining BBC Studios as Executive Editor. 

It’s a dream job and I couldn’t be more excited. Getting to sit at the table with one of the most crucially important newsrooms and studio teams in the world is going to be a thrill. That’s how this whole thing started, my love of asking questions and probing smart people to try to make the lives of others 5% better. 

So, what does that mean for this site? 

In the short term, not a ton other than timing. Instead of newsletters publishing every week, we will move to a bi-weekly schedule. I’ve got more than a dozen already ready to go and will be rolling them out over the next several months. 

We’ve got some outside contributors, one-on-one interviews with oncology chiefs, and a particularly moving story about one parent’s journey to help millions of others with medical debt. All of this will lead into the book being published early in 2027. 

Timing could speed up or slow down from there, but that’s the plan for now. 

Looking back on six months of writing, I’m just so proud. We’ve covered financial hardships, relationships, clinical trials and so many other topics. As I read through it all over the past week – and your emails to me about these newsletters – there’s a couple that stick out.

They stick out not because I did anything great. But because they struck such a nerve for you. And that reaction should be a wake-up call for anyone trying to help us live better. 

The Scherers

Michael and Megan Scherer had a lengthy, expensive, and needlessly difficult road to having a child after cancer. It was really only luck and a last-ditch effort that got them their child, despite all of their knowledge and preparation. The experience inspired them to start the Worth the Wait Charity, which is helping many in Ohio. 

In response to this newsletter, more than a dozen of you emailed with your own fertility story. Nearly every single person used the work “luck.” There has to be some way to prepare better, so that not everyone thinks fertility after cancer is only about luck. 

Suzanne Garner

Suzanne, in Encinitas, Calif., was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago. 

At the end of her treatments, she found out her risk of recurrence was near 30%. So, she went on a crusade to figure out how to lower that number – eventually finding a clinical trial that has greatly improved her odds. 

This was my most read newsletter and there was one repeated response from readers: I didn’t know clinical trials were also for survivors. 

They are. 

Life Insurance

This newsletter really struck a cord. It’s simple and direct. After cancer, you are less likely to be able to walk into a life insurance company and get a 10- or 20-year term life policy.

Sometimes it’s because of your cancer. Often, it’s because cancer has made you sicker in other ways. For me, it’s an autoimmune disorder that likely would have remained unfound for years if not for my body’s response to chemotherapy. 

But there are ways to put together financial protection. The newsletter walked through many of them. 

Early this morning, Maven Clinic and Color Health announced a new partnership that will give thousands of women greater access to oncofertility care. Maven is a virtual clinic for women’s and family health and Color is a cancer clinic for detection and care.

Working together, the two firms hope to help more women preserve their fertility options before, during and after treatment. Color patients of childbearing age, at high risk of cancer, or going through treatment will be directed to Maven’s specialized care team.

The hope is that their partnership will weave fertility risk assessment and preservation into routine cancer care — something that happens far less than it should (as examined in the Scherer’s story.)