Health & Inspiration · A Cancer Survivor's Guide
Still Standing — When the Earth Shatters
A hope-filled guide for the cancer journey, by two-time survivor Sy Robinson.
When the earth shatters beneath your feet, the last thing you need is a platitude. You need a handhold. Still Standing is the guide I wish I'd had the first time I heard the word cancer — and the second time, when it came back.
I'm Sy Robinson, and I've walked this road twice. Breast cancer, two rounds, two seasons of fear and grace and 3 a.m. ceilings. I won't pretend there was a moment the worry left me. But I will tell you this: I learned, slowly and honestly, how to keep standing — not because I was brave, but because I learned where to put my weight when the ground gave way. This book is everything I held onto. The scripture that carried me. The questions no one wanted to say out loud. The small, sacred rituals that got me from one morning to the next.
This isn't a medical manual. It's a companion — the kind that sits beside you in the waiting room, that knows grief and hope can live in the same breath, and that never, ever tells you to stay positive when you're falling apart. If you're in the fight, or loving someone who is, Still Standing is for you.
Who this book is for
- Women navigating a breast cancer diagnosis — newly diagnosed, in treatment, or in the long aftermath.
- Survivors figuring out how to live fully after the word remission changes everything and nothing.
- Caregivers, partners, family, and close friends who want to show up without saying the wrong thing.
- Anyone facing a hard diagnosis who needs a companion that's honest, faith-anchored, and free of toxic positivity.
What readers will find
The themes at the heart of the book.
Faith that holds without preaching
Scripture and prayer woven into the real, raw experience of illness — never as an answer, always as a hand to hold.
Grief and hope in the same breath
Permission to feel everything at once — the fear, the anger, the gratitude, the dark humor — without being told to choose one.
The two-time survivor's perspective
What the first diagnosis taught me, and what the recurrence demanded of me that nothing else could.
Practical handholds
The small, sacred rituals — questions to ask, conversations to have, ways to let people in — that carried me from one morning to the next.
The companion song
“Still Standing” by Ember Vale — a song I wrote to carry the feelings cancer caused me, so you can hear the hope as well as read it.
From the author
A note from Sy
I wrote Still Standing because I needed it myself. The first time I heard the word cancer, I searched for something honest — something that knew the fear without flinching and still pointed me toward light. I didn't find it, so I wrote it instead. Everything in these pages I lived. The 3 a.m. worry. The prayers that felt like they hit the ceiling. The friends who showed up and the ones who disappeared. The second diagnosis that nearly broke my faith — and the quiet way it came back. My prayer is that you find yourself in these pages and feel less alone. You are not alone. I see you.
Love, Sy ~
“The first book that told me the truth about cancer and still left me hopeful.”
“Add a caregiver or faith-community recommendation here as reviews come in.”
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Listen to Still Standing — narrated by Sy Robinson
I'm narrating the audiobook edition myself — because some things need to be heard in the voice that lived them. Available on Audible, Apple Books, and Spotify.