Breast cancer survivor pens children's book about finding joy
WOODBURY, Minn. -- There's a saying that we tend to lose ourselves in a good book, but we can also find ourselves, too.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a local author and cancer survivor is sharing her story in the form of a new children's book.
There's the saying: life is what you make of it.
"After you know cancer and COVID, we're happy to be busy," Charissa Bates said.
For Charissa Bates, life is about focusing on the positive.
"It reminds me that I should be looking for joy each day, even on hard days," she said.
We first introduced you to her over the summer. She and her family are the ones behind a charming Harry Potter-themed Little Free Library in Woodbury.
A wife, mother of three and a therapist turned author, she came up with the magical idea and the traveling children's book to go with it during her battle with cancer.
"It's just a fun outlet for me to be creative and not focus on cancer," she said.
But the pages of her new children's book are personal.
"It's all about our life actually with cancer and everything is a true story in here about how we found joy," Bates said.
A family affair to find the right words of affirmation.
"My husband was giving ideas, all the kids were giving ideas," Bates said.
In hopes of helping other families navigate the unknown and scary journey of cancer.
In 2019, Charissa was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of the disease. Her first thought was her children. Eli, her oldest, Cylus in the middle and her youngest, Anya.
"The biggest worry was first that they wouldn't have a mother, then I worried that I wouldn't get to see them grow up and that was really hard," Bates said.
But through nearly a year of chemo, a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy, they chose not to focus on the negative.
"We just embraced just the simple little things in life, coloring a picture, making sure that I got a hug at night even though I hadn't seen my kids hardly all day," Bates said. "You have no idea. The snuggles and just holding and cuddling my kids was like the biggest thing that was so dear to me during that time because I worried about the future."
And that's the hope within these 37 pages: To find reasons to care, reasons to smile and reasons to laugh, even when chemo robs their loved ones of strands of their former selves.
"We didn't have a great experience because it was cancer but we made it better," Bates said.
A message with meaning that bears repeating.
"Every page says 'Cancer messed with the wrong family,' and then there's an empowering part," Bates said. "'We learn new things. Cancer messed with the wrong family.'"
But as much as it is a message of strength, this book is also one of gratitude. Charissa dedicated this book in part to the nurses and doctors at the oncology department at M Health Fairview Cancer Center Woodwinds who saved her life.
"I'm forever thankful," Bates said.
Words that spoke volumes on recent trip to the clinic. The staff were all gifted with a book of their own.
The book is a reminder that finding joy is possible, even in the toughest of times.
The book "We Find Joy: Cancer Messed with the Wrong Family" is available on Amazon.
