"Help Me Live; 20 Things People With (Lung) Cancer Want You To Know

Lori Hope is the author of the widely-read book,

Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know.

Lori, a cancer survivor herself, speaks and writes about the importance of communicating compassionately with those rendered especially vulnerable by any disease, trauma, or other difficult condition. A producer of more than twenty documentaries that have garnered dozens of awards, and a former medical reporter and newspaper editor, Lori uses her skill and passion as a communicator to inspire others to find the pleasure and value in supporting those who are suffering.

Lori's work has appeared in Newsweek and on the Oprah show and her commentaries have been broadcast on radio stations nationwide. Her book has been featured in numerous media, including the Wall Street Journal, Time and Redbook magazines, The San Francisco Chronicle, and ABC's "Nightline". Her blog, what helps. what hurts. what heals. is among the most popular on CarePages.com, and she has spoken out about stigma in media from ABC News to the AARP Bulletin.

As a public speaker, Lori has worked with The American Cancer Society, Google, and the Jewish Federation and many other organizations, businesses, and institutions, including UCLA, UCSF, and Tulane University School of Medicine. A lung cancer survivor, she has also presented before the American Lung Association and the American Thoracic Society, addressing the stigma and dearth of funding for the disease. Her messages of hope, humor, and the importance of compassionate communication are vital to not only people who care for someone with cancer, but inspirational to anyone who wants to help a friend, colleague, or loved one who is coping with trauma or disease.

Background

Lori grew up in the St. Louis, Missouri suburbs of Clayton and Richmond Heights and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in philosophy after studying aesthetics, linguistics, literature, and anthropology. Intrigued by the German poet and writer Rainer Maria Rilke's words, "Learn to love the questions themselves" and "Ask yourself in the still hours of the night: Must I write?" Hope embarked on a career of writing and producing to plumb life's questions and themes and enlist the help of a greater community to provide the answers.

After stints as a general assignment reporter, news anchor, and medical correspondent, Hope became a staff producer at the NBC television affiliate in Portland, Oregon, making documentaries that aired mostly on weeknights, pre-empting Prime Time shows. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1993 and became an independent writer, producer, and media and public affairs consultant, later returning to journalism as a newspaper editor, commentator, and columnist.

She was diagnosed with lung cancer on June 20, 2002, by accident (see the Origin of Help Me Live), when her tumor was still very small. A former smoker who quit almost twenty years before her diagnosis, Lori is one of the fortunate 15% who live more than five years after hearing the words, "You have lung cancer." Lori gives back by working with several lung cancer organizations, including the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, the Lung Cancer Alliance, the National Lung Cancer Partnership, and the Cancer League.

Hope says her mission in all of her work, including her writing, speaking, and public outreach, is to reflect the wisdom of others as well as share her own insights. As Edith Wharton wrote, "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."
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© 2009 Lori Hope