Lisa Reisman

5 Months 10 Years 2 hours

2015 Santa Fe Writers Project Award Winner

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"Those in search of another treacly cancer memoir need not even glance at this... Reisman's unflinching and moving tale puts to rest the image of patient as warrior. By linking her own ordeal to the triathlon she took on to mark her 10-year anniversary, she reveals the true nature of cancer survival — not as a triumph of epic valor, but as a feat of endurance, forbearance and true grit."

—Lisa Sanders, MD, New York Times columnist and fellow cancer survivor

25 Miles and a Minute of Silence at the 5/17 Boston Brain Tumor Ride

May 19, 2015 / Lisa Reisman

At the start of the 25-mile route...

During the ceremony that followed Sunday's Boston Brain Tumor Ride, Committee Chair Steven Branfman asked the crowd to pause for a minute of silence. A full minute, he said, to contemplate why we were all there. So, as cowbells clanged the last cyclists in on a gorgeous sun-dappled day, I thought about the inspiring people I've met, in person and virtually, in the last three months, like Karin Mallory and her dad and Lindsay Newberry and Noonefights a Lone and Fran Cissna Butler, to name a few. For so long I felt ashamed of having had brain cancer, but they have made me feel proud for having endured it.

Though I was wearing a T shirt that crassly showed an image of my book cover, I realized my story was just one of many and the only difference was that I had the luxury of time to get it all down. I felt intensely lucky for that, and lucky, too, to have survived intact, lucky to be able to take on the 25-mile course, and to feel that blissful exhaustion that followed. So thanks, Donna Doherty, for indirectly making this happen, and to the Massachusetts Brain Tumor Society for a pretty great day.

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