Battlefield Hope: Lessons from 30 Years of Surviving Cancer

In 1995, doctors gave Susan Brearley six months to live. Her son was nine months old.

She told them: "You don't get to tell me how long I will live. I am a mother."

Thirty years later, she's still here—and she has something to tell you.

Battlefield Hope is the book Susan wished existed when she was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer at age 37. It combines her raw, honest memoir with practical resources for anyone facing serious illness—or loving someone who is.

This edition includes:

Part One: Thirty Years Later — Susan's current reflections on three decades of survival, including a second cancer diagnosis, the loss of her mother, family estrangement, and the hard-won wisdom that comes from living a life you weren't supposed to have. These aren't inspirational platitudes. This is what survival actually looks like—the Tuesday afternoons and January mornings and the ten thousandth time you wake up in a body that was supposed to be dead by now.

Part Two: The Original Edition — Preserved exactly as Susan wrote it in 2006, ten years past her terminal diagnosis. A woman in the middle of her journey, sharing lessons about storytelling, healing, and fighting disease on three fronts: body, mind, and spirit.

Part Three: Resources for Today — Updated for 2025 with current cancer organizations, meditation apps designed for patients, financial assistance programs, caregiver support, and guidance on palliative care and hospice. The resources that didn't exist in 1995—now at your fingertips.

Susan was decades ahead of her time. In 1995, she imported an alkaline water machine from Japan when no one knew what it was. She juiced pounds of carrots until her palms turned orange. She flew to the Caribbean against her doctors' orders to spend weeks with her grandparents, meditating and reading nutrition books. The doctors called her crazy.

She was right.

The world has caught up. Meditation apps, alkaline water, integrative oncology—all mainstream now. But one thing hasn't changed: patients and families still need hope. They need to know what's possible. They need someone who's been there to say, "I made it. Here's what I learned. You can fight this."

Drawing on Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Edith Eger's The Gift, and decades of lived experience, Susan shows how our ability to hold hope and envision our future self is what propels us forward.

This book is for: — Anyone newly diagnosed who needs to believe survival is possible — Long-term survivors navigating life after treatment — Family members and caregivers seeking understanding — Anyone facing serious illness who refuses to give up

Susan Brearley is a two-time cancer survivor, practicing Buddhist, and writer who has been defying medical predictions since 1995. She works at a hospital reception desk where she practices being present for people in their darkest moments. She knows what it means to walk out of a room where someone just died. She knows what it means to walk into an operating room not knowing if you'll wake up.

She's still here. Still telling her story. Still proving that the work isn't done.

"Leon told me to tell my story. I'm still telling it. My work here on this planet is not yet done. Neither is yours."