Former Lion Details Wife's Battle With Cancer
DETROIT (WWJ) - A former Detroit Lions star is turning his fight on the football field to a fight against cancer.
Chris Spielman has just written a new book called "The Chris And Stefanie Spielman Story: That's Why I'm Here," detailing his wife's 11-year battle with terminal breast cancer, a disease that claimed her life in November of 2009.
Spielman told WWJ Newsradio 950's Greg Bowman he decided to write the book when he learned that his wife Stefanie's illness was terminal because he wanted the story to be raw.
"When you find out someone's terminal, you start reflecting on your own life, and reflecting on the journey as a whole," Spielman said. The book tells about the frustrations, disappointments, and heartbreak of the struggle. "I wanted to tell the story people didn't know because it's a book that provides hope, hope through diagnosis, hope through five reoccurrences of the disease, even hope through death."
Comparing his career on the football field to cancer, Spielman said, "In football, I can outrun, outhit and outhustle anyone. But cancer doesn't fight fair. It's a very difficult opponent to defeat."
Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, Spielman says he talks to 10 people every day who have just been diagnosed or have issues with cancer. He says he tells them with faith, love, and hard work, they can get through anything. And that they need to lean on each other.
Spielman has raised more than $10 million through the Spielman funds to help defeat cancer.
Stefanie Spielman worked as a writer at WWJ Newsradio 950 in the 1990s.
