Medical family therapist Patrick Plumeri guides cancer patients and their loved ones as they explore big life questions and helps them manage the disease's daily stresses.

Karin and David Driver share a glimpse of their everyday life outside the walls of Duke Cancer Center and open up about their journey here.

Substitute teacher and cancer survivor Tim McKenna, was teaching history at the Durham School of the Arts when a gas explosion ripped through downtown Durham.

For 20 years, Nadine Barrett, PhD, has worked to reduce health disparities among underrepresented populations by increasing their access to care and research.

As a boy growing up in Schenectady, New York, Steven Patierno, PhD, could often be found out in the woods performing surgery on frogs, when he wasn’t playing sandlot soccer or a local, slightly more “aggressive” version of capture the flag.

Deputy Director of Duke Cancer Institute Steven Patierno, PhD, is energized by his decades-long work in cancer control and cancer health disparities.

There wasn’t much that could slow down Keith Nguyen, a Merck pharmaceutical employee who often traveled for business and described himself as being “in perfect health.” When he had a heart attack last year at age 50, it was a sucker punch.

One after the other — Katie at 20 then Megan at 19 — discovered they each carried a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, which put their lifetime risk of breast cancer at a whopping 80% and ovarian cancer at 40 to 60%. They decided to take preventative action

Melanie Bacheler, at 32, was a full-time pharmaceutical company sales representative, part-time gymnastics coach, and a new mom of a six-month-old when her mother Gail Parkins was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian epithelial cancer.

After college graduation, Shannon Voelkel rented an apartment in Charleston and started her “dream job” working for a well-known interior design firm. A year-and-a-half later she would learn that life had other plans. She had to change direction.

Bob Thomas, who was given a terminal metastatic cancer diagnosis nearly eight years ago, is not precisely sure exactly which cancer he survived. All that matters to him is that he’s alive and thriving.

Plenty busy with fishing, golfing and grandchildren, Jim Slaughter, a Duke retiree, doesn’t just volunteer because he has the time; he volunteers because, as they say, he has the heart. He's also a cancer survivor.

One spring day five years ago, fourth grade teacher Tricia Gallagher felt something like a scab — smaller than a sunflower seed — on her head. She didn’t think much of it. “I thought it was a tick, because my boys and I hike,” she recalled.

In December two years ago, heating-and-air-conditioning repairman Jack Walker decided to stop for gas on his way to a Rotary Club meeting. The decision may have saved his life.

Meira Epplein, PhD, MS, MA, can hardly recall a time when she wasn’t thinking about what she now considers her “life’s work” — researching Helicobacter pylori, the primary identified cause of stomach cancer.

Hoofing it up the steps and zipping through the halls across Duke’s medical campus, Crystal Cates, MS, CCRP, is a clinical research coordinator on a mission.

Roshanda “Wyndi” Smith, who runs a stainless-steel jewelry business, is living with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer — staying strong in spirit, even on her weakest days. She said she’s “realistic” about her future.

“When I was young, I was called crazy for the way I drove cars and motorcycles,” said Bob, who turns 85 three days before his 6th skydive for DCI. “Now when I do ‘crazy’ things — like jumping out of an airplane — some people say I’m an inspiration."