Haymarket women create cancer journal

Two Haymarket residents have published an organizer designed to help cancer patients keep track of their medical information.

Susan Thornberg and Janis DeVore created SteppingStone Journals and published an organizer called "My Personal Journey Through Cancer" after Thornberg's mother passed away of lung cancer in January 2008.

Thornberg, a breast cancer survivor, said she knew the importance of keeping all of a patient's medical in-formation in one place and so she kept a detailed notebook throughout her mother's illness.

That notebook became the first draft of "My Personal Journey Through Cancer," she said.

"I wanted to create a guide that would keep track of my mother's medical information and her daily well being," Thornberg said in a press release. "The peace of mind of having her medical information in one readily accessible place was such a relief for my mother and those caring for her."

The organizer is divided into sections where the cancer patients can write down their medical history, medications, details about their medical appointments, questions to ask their doctors, symptoms, personal contact information and to-do lists.

Thornberg and DeVore also published "Reflections," an accompaying blank journal where patients can write their thoughts and other information.

Thornberg said she thinks the organizer and journal will be helpful to anyone who has cancer or is caring for some-one with cancer.

"Hearing that you have cancer, you're just devastated, or at least I was. So I'm just hoping that the journal can help people who are going through that," she said.

The journals sell for $26.99 and can be bought online at http://www.steppingstonejournals.

com or at Cupcake Heaven and Cafe, at 14950 Washington St., in Haymarket.

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.