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I Love You More...To Suzanne, from Mark: A Couple Battling Cancer Confronts the Sordid Reality of U.S. Cancer Care

By: Mark Mallardi
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Publication Date: July 17, 2023
ISBN: 978-1639888917
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Review Date: June 26, 2023

Author Mark Mallardi recalls the love for, and loss, of his dear wife and their struggles as cancer victims, offering readers new ways to consider the American medical system and the alternatives to it, based on tough-minded and often agonizing personal experience in his memoir, I Love You More...To Suzanne, from Mark: A Couple Battling Cancer Confronts the Sordid Reality of U.S. Cancer Care.

Mallardi and his wife-to-be Suzanne met when both were mature, thoughtful adults who found they shared similar values, including enjoyment of music and an underpinning of religious faith that took them, in courtship and marriage, across the globe to visit famous sacred sites. They also shared a seemingly psychic connection, taking clues and cues from dreams and spontaneous visions. Suzanne, a real estate agent, helped the author find an appropriate home, and they would eventually share it with several beloved pets. But at a certain point, everything changed. Mallardi was diagnosed with prostate cancer – already at an advanced stage - and as he sought medical care, he began to realize that standard American cancer treatment was extremely limited, mainly involving surgery (cut), radiation (burn), and chemotherapy (poison), sadly lacking Empathy, Healing, and Hope. He began diligently investigating alternative, holistic, non-toxic approaches available in other countries. As he prepared to depart for a lengthy stay at an alternative cancer treatment center in Mexico, he had to bid a last goodbye to Suzanne, who had fallen victim to breast cancer in the interim and would pass away days after he began his new, unconventional regime at CHIPSA hospital in Mexico.

His experiences of fear, frustration, rage, and grief solidified Mallardi’s resolve to write this tenderly expressive, highly informative memoir, sharing intimate moments with his beloved Suzanne and accurately depicting their mutual sufferings. Always they were bound together by small, but moving visualizations and sensations that would ultimately lead Mallardi to conclude that, “there were no more coincidences in my life.” The path he and Suzanne had to tread was based in “Faith” – in tearful prayers and joyous insights, and in his bedrock belief that one’s purpose in life is to help others. As part of his determination to do so, he offers exploration of alternative healing options for cancer patients, many of which he himself has undergone, citing the developers of such choices and the institutions and techniques available, which include a wide variety of sources, demonstrating Mallardi’s openness to all potentially helpful, curative prospects.

Quill says: Mallardi’s well-researched, poignant observations will be appreciated by those facing, or aiding someone who faces, momentous challenges like his - as a loving, emotionally devastated spouse, cancer victim, and determined survivor.

For more information on I Love You More...To Suzanne, from Mark: A Couple Battling Cancer Confronts the Sordid Reality of U.S. Cancer Care, please visit the author's website at: suzanneandmark.com

Author Interview