Deborah J. Cromwell

Deborah J. Cornwall is a breast cancer survivor and advocate on behalf of cancer patients and their caregivers. She has been associated with the American Cancer Society and its Cancer Action Network as a volunteer leader since 1994, performing a variety of local, regional, and national roles and serving as a media spokesperson before audiences ranging from 16 to 30,000. In May 2013, the New England Division and National American Cancer Society Boards of Directors unanimously awarded her the St. George National Award recognizing her many significant personal and professional contributions to the fight against cancer. In 2014 she received the Lorin Lavidor Caregiver Award from the New England Coalition for Cancer Survivorship. Her passion to write her first book (Things I Wish I'd Known: Cancer Caregivers Speak Out) was ignited by her interaction with cancer patients and caregivers at the Society's AstraZeneca Hope Lodge Center in Boston. Both within her own community and at the Society's AstraZeneca Hope Lodge, she came in contact with people whose cancer survival and caregiving stories were much more trying than her own diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer in 2001. Generous with their stories, the 95 interviewed caregivers (who came from 19 states and represented 117 patients with over 40 different cancer diagnoses) felt a strong desire to be heard and to share the lessons they had learned (often the hard way). She realized she could use her proven interviewing and writing skills to help them do that. These ingredients hatched a dream that made Things I Wish I'd Known a reality. Her second book,Things I Wish I'd Known: Cancer and Kids, draws on that foundation by offering guidance to adults on how to help them understand the impact of cancer on their and their families' lives and how to engage children in the caregiving process in age-appropriate ways. Its writing was inspired by the experiences of personal friends in confronting these most sensitive communications challenges. Professionally Cornwall consults with boards of directors and CEOs on leadership, CEO succession, governance, and change issues as Managing Director of The Corlund Group LLC.