Lisa Bonchek Adams, Who Wrote About Her Cancer, Dies

Read: When to Live-Blog Your Cancer

Lisa Bonchek Adams, a prominent online writer who inspired and provoked readers with her extensive writing on her experience with cancer, died Friday evening.

“The thousands upon thousands who knew and loved Lisa Bonchek Adams … will find it hard to believe that her steely will and indomitable spirit were finally overcome by the disease she had lived with for so many years,” the announcement on her website read. “In keeping with Lisa’s wishes, this web site will be maintained as a resource of Lisa’s writings about metastatic breast cancer, grief and loss, life, and family.”

A Connecticut mother of three, Adams shared her story in more than 176,000 tweets and frequent blog posts. She was treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. “I gather up my pump cords, release myself from the wall’s grip,” Adams wrote in a post typical for its grit and intimacy. “I walk, counterclockwise around the nurse’s station with a vengeance, trying to push the pain and discomfort away.”

Adams’ frequent updates attracted more than 15,000 Twitter followers, as well as controversy over the role of social media in writing about death and disease. Earlier this month, Adams wrote that “things have gotten exponentially harder in last few weeks.” Her family reports that she died peacefully and surrounded by loved ones, writing, “We know that Lisa will always be a part of your lives, as she will be a part of ours.”

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