Breast Cancer Bill of Rights

  I have the right to be told the truth about my disease.

  I have the right to feel bad if I receive bad news.

  I have the right to talk to my doctor and my   family about cancer,

and I have the right to privacy in refusing to talk with others about it,..if that is my choice.

  I have the right to be treated as a person and not merely as a “patient” while I am sick.

  The fact that I am sick does not give others the right to make decisions for me.
 

  I have the right to think about the other things besides my cancer. 

I do not have to allow cancer to control every detail of my life.

  I have the right to ask others for help in the things I cannot do for myself, within reason.

  I always have the right to hope – for a full cure,
and a longer life, or a happier life here and now.

  I have the right and it is OK to be angry with people I love. 

  My anger does not mean I have stopped loving them.

  I have the right to cope with my cancer in my own way,

and my family has the right to cope with it in theirs.
…Our ways may be different, but that is OK.

  I have the right to be free of pain if that is my choice.