responsive-logo
  • Home
  • About
  • Keep Breathing
    • Keep Breathing: Introduction
    • Part 1
      • Stay Grounded
      • Keep Breathing
      • Gather Information
      • Feel What You Feel
      • Take in Support
      • Pray
      • Practice Surrender
      • Notice Your Reactivity
    • Part 2
      • Realize What Is Happening to You
        Is Happening To Everyone in Your Life
      • Take Inventory
      • Let Go of Shame
      • Extend Grace
      • Show Up
      • Learn Vulnerability
      • Make Amends
      • Stay Present in Times of Waiting
    • Part 3
      • Be Still and Keep Moving
      • Know You Are Not Alone
      • Ask for Healing
      • Seek Guidance
      • Meditate
      • Pursue Peace
      • Acknowledge Death
      • Grieve
    • Part 4
      • Express Gratitude
      • Stay Open to Joy
      • Make Room for Laughter
      • Celebrate Each Day
      • Let Yourself Be Carried
      • Be Who You Are
      • Know That You Are Loved
  • Desperate Hope
    • Shocked by the Diagnosis
    • Responding to Feelings of Fear, Anxiety, and Sadness
    • Ordering Desperate Hope
  • TLC Leader’s Manual
    • Group Leader Resources
      • Introduction to TLC
      • Meeting Format
      • Notes to Group Leaders
      • When a Group Member Dies
    • Strong Feelings
      • Understanding our Feelings
      • The Emotional Roller Coaster
      • Living With Fear
      • Dealing With Depression
      • Living with Anger
      • Grieving Our Losses
      • The Experience of Gratitude
      • Celebration and Joy
      • Experiencing Peace
      • Finding Hope
    • Challenges to Faith
      • Stretching Our Faith
      • Prayer
      • Examining Our View of God
      • Healing Prayer
      • The Lord Is With Us
      • God’s Healing Presence
    • Changing Perspectives
      • The Seasons Of Survival
      • Living Sanely in An Insane World
      • One Day At A Time
      • Positive Thinking
      • Accepting Our Need for Help
      • Building Friendships
      • Perspectives on Treatment
      • Coping With Pain
      • Repairing Our Self Esteem
  • Contact

Desperate Hope

To order a copy of Desperate Hope go here

From the back cover:

One of the toughest, most disorienting challenges life can throw at us is a diagnosis of breast cancer. Questions and fears race through our minds. Why me? Where is God? What will happen next?

From the shock of the diagnosis through the endless doctors’ appointments, from tough decisions about surgery and chemotherapy to plans for the family’s future, this book will be your spiritual companion. Desperate Hope gives you the opportunity to ask God the hard questions and see beyond the darkness ahead.

Barbara Milligan draws on her own experiences and her interviews with women in various stages of breast cancer. Each chapter gives a glimpse of what life with cancer is like. Here is encouragement, along with practical help, for breast cancer patients as well as for their families and friends.

As I read Barbara’s book in the midst of tests for a possible recurrence of my own breast cancer, I found her words showering my soul with peace and hope. What a gift!”
Joyce Landorf Heatherley, author and singer

Table of Contents:

  1. Turning to the God of Our Desperate Hope
  2. Responding to Feelings of Fear, Anxiety, and Sadness
  3. Responding to Feelings of Anger, Disappointment, and Guilt
  4. Receiving Help from Others
  5. Seeking God’s Wisdom about Treatment
  6. Facing Treatments and Their Side Effects
  7. Responding to Changes in Our Bodies
  8. Reaffirming Our Sexuality
  9. Keeping Our Relationships Intact
  10. Grieving Our Losses
  11. Readjusting to Normal Life
  12. Seeing Ourselves in New Ways
  13. Seeing Death in New Ways
  14. Seeing Our Relationships in New Ways
  15. Renewing Our Hope
  16. Epilogue: Experiencing God Today
  17. Appendix A: Finding Spiritual Support
  18. Appendix B: For Husbands: Reaffirming Your Wife’s Sexuality
  19. Appendix C: How Can I Help a Woman Who Has Cancer?
  20. Appendix D: Resources
  21. Notes

    Share this page:

    • Email
    • Print
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Skype

Desperate Hope


This article is an excerpt, slightly modified, from Barbara Milligan’s book Desperate Hope: Experiencing God in the Midst of Breast Cancer, published originally by InterVarsity Press. To order a copy, go here

Quote of the moment

"Jesus accepted suffering and rejected shame. He “endured the cross and scorned the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). We tend to reject the suffering—we deny it, run from it, tune it out—but we tend to embrace the shame as if it were the truth. Shame, however, is a lie. None of us is ever “less than.” None of us is unlovable, beyond repair, or worthless. We are loved and cherished by a redeeming, healing, saving God."
Juanita Ryan

Copyright © 2023 Together Living With Cancer · Disclaimer · Privacy Policy - Log in