Question: I have been diagnosed terminally ill with lung cancer and liver cancer. I am not at this moment yet, but wonder, how long?

No one can be specific as to how long someone has to live. We can recognize that a cure is not possible but can’t put numbers on the length of life.

Each person’s disease process will unfold differently depending on our personality and how we deal with life challenges. As the dying process begins the desire to eat decreases, the need to sleep increases and our interest in the happenings around us decreases. My booklet, Gone From My Sight, explains the unfolding process that occurs months before death actually arrives.

No one knows how long someone has to live but think about this: life is a terminal illness. We begin dying from the moment we are born. It is just that someone in an unhealthy body is reminded everyday that they are not going to live forever. Someone in a “healthy” body (and who knows if they are truly healthy?) lives under the illusion they are going to live forever and often wastes this gift of life.

If there are just two ways to die, gradual or fast, then dying from a disease, gradually, is a gift; a gift of time. It gives us the opportunity to do and say what we want and need to do and say before we leave those people who are important to us. My booklet, A Time To Live, gives guidance on how to live with a life threatening illness until death comes.


You asked a difficult question. It took courage to reach out for answers and direction. I don’t have enough information about your illness to be more specific. Talk with your physician, ask if a referral to Hospice is timely. We tend to think Hospice is for the dying. If that were the case we would all qualify for Hospice. Hospice is for those people living with a life threatening illness. Hospice helps people live until death arrives.

My blessings to you on this journey.