Madison Oliver
Published: 2008-07
Total Pages: 276
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Tracing the footsteps of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, Madison Oliver, an engineer and author of The Elusive Cobra: A Memoir, was seduced by the warm tropical trade winds of the South Pacific Islands. In 1963, after a vacation in Tahiti, Oliver and his wife, Gini, put their possessions in storage to begin a South Pacific adventure that would alter their lives forever. Trouble, however, sometimes comes to paradise. Oliver is diagnosed with cancer and must leave his paradise to have radical neck surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The author was diagnosed with his first secondary tumor at the young age of forty-four, in 1970. Three years later, a new-yet very similar-tumor developed on the opposite side of his neck requiring more radical surgery. Following the building of a new image, developing an exercise program that included running two marathons, and completing a successful career, cancer struck again. Mr. Oliver's encounter with recurring cancer, which he likens to the unpredictable attack of a hooded cobra, not only has a message for his fellow cancer survivors, but is inspiring, moving, and the pinnacle of bravery. Book jacket.