Review of First Survivor

[Ashley Hodgins]

[Following is a volunteer review of "First Survivor" by Mark Unger.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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First Survivor is a book about every parent's worst nightmare. You can feel the parent's desperation to find a cure at any cost and they did just that. This book is about making history and paving the way for helping find treatment for relapsing brain tumors in neuroblastomas. The book was deeply moving, as a reader you can feel the frustration and anger at the medical system and its incompetency.
This book was not faith-based or spiritual. The parents, especially the Dad, focused on finding every possible treatment and expert available. He wrote as a way of keeping himself grounded and to feel a sense of control over what was happening. In the book he includes multiple journal entries which gives the readers a chance to fully grasp what the family was going trough. This book also touches on the hard-to-talk-about parts of having a child going through treatment for such a terrible diagnosis while having other kids at home to consider.
This book is a journey and it takes the reader along with them. The start of this medical journey was in 2001 and it gives the reader a chance to see how far the medical world has come in the past 20-plus years. At the end of the book is a chapter on resources. There is a desperation in this book to share their experience with other parents and people in the hope that they can help save someone else's child or loved one. It's a very honorable book, credit is given where credit is due. This book would be suitable for most readers. It has a rawness to it, like your neighbor might have wrote it, which makes it very easy to connect to.
I would rate this book 5/5 for its rawness and vulnerability.

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First Survivor
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[Grace Jane]

A powerful reminder of the importance of early diagnosis and treatment.