I'm not participating but wanted to say that my mother and her twin sister fought cancer for over a decade before succumbing to it. My father has had two types and is doing well now at 79.
I had the choice of brain surgery or radiation treatments for a benign brain tumor. When I had the radiation, few chose it because of the increased probability of brain cancer. The chance of contracting brain cancer from the radiation was about the same as the the chance of dying on the operating table during brain surgery. Most patients chose surgery, apparently they'd rather die now than get cancer in the future; that's how frightening cancer is.
Our reason is quite satisfied, in 999 cases out of every 1000 of us, if we can find a few arguments that will do to recite in case our credulity is criticized by someone else. Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
- William James, from The Will to Believe, a guest lecture at Yale University in 1897