Is that right? Did you really say that?

I kept this one from when I was having chemo. I was lucky and had a relatively good run with chemo, but oh, how I hated the "brave battler" :

Having cancer treatment is mostly a matter of doing what you're told when you're told to do it. There is not much choice involved.

I, like most cancer patients, fronted up and put on a gown, or fronted up and held my arm out for an oncology nurse to find a viable vein when and where directed. I was often terrified and there were times I was a blubbering mess. Constantly putting cancer under the "brave" banner places undue pressure on people to present a stoic face to the world, when they feel like screaming or crying. Referring to it as a "battle" is upping the ante on people just trying to do the best they can each day and getting on with the show. Fellow journalists, please, please find a couple of new words to replace "brave battle". You're creative, you can do it. While you're at it, think about losing the cancer "sufferer" descriptor. It makes me feel like a hopeless leper in Biblical times.

Mandy Squires, Geelong Advertiser, May 17 2013