By Seamus Parfrey
Oliver Sacks, a professor of neurology at the New York University School of Medicine, is the author of many books, including "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat." This is what he wrote recently regarding his impending passing which is beautifully brave.
My Own Life
Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer
FEBRUARY 19, 2015 The New York Times
A MONTH ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out - a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver. Nine years ago it was discovered that I had a rare tumor of the eye, an ocular melanoma. Although the radiation and lasering to remove the tumor ultimately left me blind in that eye, only in very rare cases do such tumors metastasize. I am among the unlucky 2 percent.
I feel grateful that I have been granted nine years of good health and productivity since the original diagnosis, but now I am face to face with dying. The cancer occupies a third of my liver, and though its advance may be slowed, this particular sort of cancer cannot be halted.
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