The Cancer Parent's Handbook

When the pediatrician said her three-year-old daughter Cecilia's lethargy and the black circles under her eyes were childhood leukemia, Laura entered the frenzied existence of childhood cancer. That first day, she spent $250 on cancer books on Amazon, and uncovered the truth-there is no book, no expert, no roadmap for parenting a kid through cancer, and for leading a family through this journey. That realization was paralyzing and overwhelming.

Laura tried to become a cancer expert to fix their horrible reality. She pulled away from friends, family, colleagues, and even her therapist as she dove into the research, desperate for a guaranteed cure. Her marriage morphed into a series of transactions focused on two things: saving Cecilia, and swapping out care for her other daughter Madi, just 15 months old. Laura was isolated in her debilitating fear. Everything needed to change-and it did when Laura decided to shift how she was living. She started asking for help and learned to advocate for herself, her child, her family, and the life she worked so hard to create. When she did, friends rallied around, her family became supportive in every way possible, and her marriage strengthened as she and her husband, Arne, learned how to lean into each other as teammates instead of adversaries.

At 6-1/2, Cecilia was deemed cured. At 22, she graduated from college-something she only had an 85% chance of living to see happen. Laura helps parents devote space to focus on their mental and physical well-being, as a mandatory part of the treatment process. She shares how to strengthen your child's and entire family's mental health during treatment with tips for finding the fun and allowing your kids to be kids, safely playing with friends, attending school while immune-compromised, and staying healthy during treatment and beyond.

She leads parents to establish new routines for daily life and guidance on how to figure out where help is needed and how to ask for it clearly and gracefully so that extended family and friends can be deeply involved in helping the entire family. Laura gives the play-by-play for creating a true team with your spouse or partner, sharing the daily tasks of treatment, and keeping your romantic life thriving.

In The Cancer Parent's Handbook, parents discover how to become fierce advocates for their child, their family, their relationships, and themselves.

The Cancer Parent's Handbook tackles these issues head-on, taking parents from diagnosis through the years of treatment and follow-up care with specific strategies and tools to not end up as another statistic in the cancer world. Laura presents pragmatic practices for creating a more positive mindset, establishing a strong support network with your partner, friends, and family, and using smart tools to better endure the pokes, procedures, and uncertainty with more empowered choices.