The cards are created by Kathy Honey-Murphy, a Minnesota native and cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in August 2011 at 49-years-old, and went through eight rounds of chemotherapy, 28 radiation sessions and a double mastectomy with reconstruction. Ms. Honey-Murphy’s Cancer Girl cards are intended to bring patients comfort and humor.
“When you receive a diagnosis of cancer, you learn one thing right away: People do not know what to say and it is always the elephant in the room,” Ms. Honey-Murphy wrote on her website. “I decided that I was going to have a good attitude (most days) and would try to find the humor in the horrible thing that I was going through. I decided to call myself what I was: Cancer Girl. I posted humorous observations on my Facebook page and realized quickly that if I laughed, it put others at ease to ask me the questions that they wanted to ask.”
Many of the illustrations and captions on the Cancer Girl cards are from Ms. Honey-Murphy’s personal experiences. She said on her website she wants the cards to “bring a smile and a laugh, even if for a moment.”
Cancer Girl cards are priced between $2.99 and $3.99. They are sold at more than 40 stores around the U.S., including hospital gift shops at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Mercy and Methodist hospitals in the Twin Cities, according to a twelve.tv news report.
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