Robert Andrew Wagner is a writer, teacher, and performer, teaching through stories, telling stories through songs as frontman and chief songwriter/lyricist for The Little Wretches. Wagner is a survivor of cancer, holds a master’s degree in Instruction and Learning, and teaches and counsels at-risk teens.
- 02:20: The Little Wretches was the band I started when my survival was clear.
- 04:42: I find this little lump in my groin.
- 06:09: I had one positive lymph node.
- 08:35: We just found a lump the size of a walnut and on each of your lungs.
- 09:48: I did miss a few chemo sessions.
- 13:00: Did it have any impact on your ability to have kids?
- 15:00: I think the chemo affected my thinking.
- 18:56: It's like my life came back to me.
- 21:11: Were you alone in this hospital?
- 23:00: They kept on trying to tell him that he had AIDS.
- 25:14: What is the one thing you wish you had known at the very beginning of your cancer journey?
- 27:03: If you could only do one thing to improve health care in the US, what would it
- be and why?
- 28:15: Thriver Rapid Fire Questions.
- 31:13: Trust your doctors.
- 33:07: Where did the name of the band come from?
Resources
Cancer U Thrivers
Cancer patients, caregivers, survivors, and providers share inspiring stories to teach you how to navigate our complex healthcare system. On the Cancer U Thrivers Podcast, real people share true stories.
Host Andrea Wilson Woods is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and patient advocate. She founded the nonprofit Blue Faery after losing her sister Adrienne, whom she raised, to stage IV liver cancer at age 15. Andrea is the CEO and co-founder of Cancer University, an online platform for cancer patients and caregivers.
ANDREA WILSON WOODS is a writer who loves to tell stories, and a patient advocate who founded the nonprofit Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association. Andrea is the CEO and co-founder of Cancer University, a for-profit, social-benefit, digital health company. With Cancer U, Andrea synergizes her talents of coaching, writing, teaching, and advocacy. For over ten years, Andrea worked in the education field as a teacher and professor for public and private schools as well as universities. Andrea obtained her master’s degree in professional writing from the University of Southern California; her nonfiction writing has won national awards. Her bestselling and award-winning medical memoir Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days is about the seven years she raised her younger sister Adrienne until her death at age 15 from stage IV liver cancer.
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