Posts from lungcancer.net: Interview with Karen Loss about Finding Support as a Single Person with Lung Cancer

A recent post on a patient support site about the impact of cancer and its treatments on intimacy got a response from Karen Loss, an active lung cancer patient advocate. She said she appreciated the fact that I included a paragraph on how these issues may affect single people because this topic is only addressed within the context of partnered people. I asked her if i could interview her about how she has built a support network as a single person, and she said yes.

Karen and I covered several questions, and she wrote great answers. We posted her interview in two parts:


“Literally. from the day I was diagnosed, I made the conscious decision to share my journey with my entire list of friends and family… I live alone, so I knew it would be up to me to create any support system I might want or need.”



“Fortunately, as an introvert, I am generally comfortable spending most of my time alone. That said, however, I do miss having someone at hand to talk to, not only about lung cancer, but just about the mundane things in life.”


Karen has also written a book, Trekking Through Cancerland, about her experiences with diagnosis and chemo. I’ve read it and reviewed it on Amazon. It’s an honest telling of how Karen dealt with the side effects of chemo and of how she finds strength to keep living a full life despite her diagnosis. Reasonably priced on Amazon! Karen also has a “Trekking Through Cancerland” Facebook page, where she shares a wide variety of informative articles about the latest research and about survivorship issues. She is currently in a phase 1 trial, testing a brand new drug in combination with immunotherapy. Count me as one of many people who is grateful for everything she has given the lung cancer community.

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