Roads to Meaning and Resilience with Cancer

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Morhaf Al Achkar

A young general practitioner with lung cancer searches for his identity and for an "answer to my existential struggle". He facilitates conversations about some of life's big questions with 39 others with the same diagnosis, "hoping that by developing the language to explain our struggles as cancer patients, others can understand us better, and with that, also better understand themselves

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About the Author

My name is Morhaf Al Achkar. I was born in Aleppo-Syria in 1983. I migrated to the United States in 2006 after finishing medical school. I also obtained a Ph.D. in Education from Indiana University. Currently, I am a practicing family physician and associate professor at the University of Washington.

In 2016, I was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Since then, my research has focused on the experience of patients living with cancers. My first book is based on interviews I did with 39 patients who live, like me, with advanced illness. I explored how these patients find meaning, cope, and build resilience

Writing my memoir was my attempt to reconstruct my narrative. I did not want to be defined as a cancer patient nor as someone living with resilience despite cancer. I wanted to be me again: A Syrian Immigrant.