{"id":159355,"date":"2026-04-07T11:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/159355\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:16:07","slug":"citizen-of-the-week-deborah-burnham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/159355\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizen of the Week: Deborah Burnham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Getting ready for a memorial service, Deborah Burnham, PhD, put on a black dress with a scoop neck. She was surprised to see the lump where her infusion port was \u2014 she had never seen it exposed that way before.<\/p>\n

Burnham isn\u2019t the sort of person to worry much about what people think, but still, she wondered if she wanted to show it to the world \u2014 and if so, how?<\/p>\n

In the end, she ruled the dress inappropriately formal and saved herself from making the decision. But later, she opened her laptop and wrote an expansive prompt for Writing a Life, the Abramson Cancer Center workshop she has volunteered to lead for over 10 years.<\/p>\n

When cancer and treatment leave their rude and intrusive imprints on our bodies, what do we do? Ports, PICC lines, drains \u2026 baldness, prostheses \u2026 Do we hide them? Do we let them show, but pretend they aren\u2019t there?<\/p>\n

On the other hand, maybe cancer has left your body unmarked on the outside. You might be deeply scarred on the inside \u2014 your heart, your gut, your lungs. Or your very sense of self, your very soul.<\/p>\n

Then, on a Friday in May, Burnham got on Microsoft Teams and shared what she had crafted with a group of about 10 Penn Medicine patients, inviting them to contemplate the marks of their disease on their bodies and minds.<\/p>\n

Emotional stories emerged about what cancer had stolen, and the traces it had left behind. The compression sleeves. The end of long, flowing hair. The feeling of being exposed.<\/p>\n

Reading aloud was voluntary \u2014 \u201cThis isn\u2019t school,\u201d Burnham always says. \u2014 but those who chose to read received wise and tender comments.<\/p>\n

Writing to heal <\/p>\n

Someone who has lived with chronic pain for years once remarked that pain does not offer a consent form. What would it feel like to sign a pain consent form? Would you try to impose limits by saying \u201cup to and including _____ but no more?\u201d Would you think back to the kinds and degrees of pains you\u2019ve had and say \u201cthis, but not that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Abramson Cancer Center\u2019s Patient and Family Services began offering the Writing a Life program in 2015 to provide a guided writing space for patients with a cancer diagnosis. In the early years, sessions were held in Penn\u2019s Kelly Writers House;<\/a> now the group meets virtually every three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a kind of wordless support from these folks, just being there with them. It\u2019s not something I understood at first, but it definitely makes a difference. These are my people.\u201d \u2014 Deborah Burnham<\/p>\n

Since almost the beginning, the writing portion of the group has been led by Burnham, a retired associate undergraduate chair of English at Penn. Oncology social workers co-facilitate, providing in-group emotional support to participants and administrative support to the group between sessions. The Cancer Center has offered versions of Writing a Life to patients, caregivers and families, physicians, and medical students, all with a similar structure \u2014 and all with Burnham\u2019s original prompts.<\/p>\n

Writing a Life is \u201ctherapy, stress relief, and a place to air grievances and heal wounds that cancer treatments cannot cure and frequently cause,\u201d said Cathy Kunzinger Urwin, PhD, who joined in 2016, three years after a diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer.<\/p>\n

That is largely due to Burnham, who creates a \u201cprecious space for writing, sharing and healing,\u201d through \u201cmagical\u201d writing prompts that help surface \u201cwhat is in you that needs to be said,\u201d said Lisa Wise, M.Ed., who lives with B-cell lymphoma and became a published writer<\/a> after joining the group.<\/p>\n

Connecting the cancer tribe <\/p>\n

Did you ever feel that you were not given information that you wanted? Or should have been given, even if you didn\u2019t want it? On the other hand, were there times when you really didn\u2019t want to know?<\/p>\n

In 2015, when Burnham volunteered to help lead Writing a Life, she hadn\u2019t yet experienced her own cancer diagnoses and treatments and hadn\u2019t worked with a patient population before. But she had taught literature and writing her whole adult life, to students of all different ages and backgrounds, which had given her a strong sympathetic instinct.<\/p>\n

In the early days, Burnham cringes to recall, she invited participants to write about the moon, colors, and generic things like that. She had to build up the courage to have the group write about illness and treatment.<\/p>\n

Even then, she could tell how much the group meant to people. There was emotional power in writing, sharing, and listening to each other\u2019s stories in a room where everyone had received that same diagnosis: cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople needed to be with members of their tribe, even if they had extremely sympathetic doctors and nurses \u2014 and many of them did \u2014 and even if they had family members who were loving and attentive,\u201d Burnham said. \u201cThe opportunity to express themselves on some specific aspect of illness and treatment was good for them, and eventually, they formed some real community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The power of a prompt <\/p>\n

Write about five things you wish people wouldn\u2019t say about cancer.<\/p>\n

How do you feel about plastic hospital wristbands?<\/p>\n

What are the spaces in your life \u2014 making art, listening to the rain, walking your dog\u2014where cancer can\u2019t enter?<\/p>\n

Burnham has written well over 200 original writing prompts during Writing a Life\u2019s 11 years. She jokes she has a \u201cprompt angel\u201d on her shoulder that tells her what to type. It\u2019s a little like that; she is constantly jotting down ideas, whether from literature, news, stand-up comedy routines, comments made in the group \u2014 or like that one Friday, her own personal experience. Cancer provides an endless well of material.<\/p>\n

The moment of diagnosis, side effects of treatment, and pain are frequent topics\u2014heavy subjects but presented with a note of levity. In one prompt, which she called \u201cSo Much Stuff,\u201d she invited the group to write about all the items accumulated during treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe gives permission to everyone to say what\u2019s on their mind.\u201d \u2014 Lisa Wise<\/p>\n

Maybe, she said, it all went into the trash. \u201cOr maybe,\u201d she countered, \u201cyou were so grateful for your walker that you hung bells on it. Maybe you used old compression socks to tie up your tomatoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Burnham, said Wise, who joined Writing a Life in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeb is a very, very unusual combination. She has this gentle quietness that allows her to be in very, very sad, difficult, dark places with people \u2014 we\u2019ve lost a lot of people\u2014but then she\u2019s also got this really funny, irreverent side,\u201d Wise said. \u201cShe gives permission to everyone to say what\u2019s on their mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those too scared to do that, Burnham is there to help. Donna Wadsworth Armstrong remembers attending one of the group\u2019s first meetings when she was recuperating from treatments and complications related to mantle cell lymphoma. She wanted to share the poem she had written about her sister, who had been by her side during her illness, but she was too nervous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Deb I couldn\u2019t read it, and she said she would read what I wrote,\u201d said Armstrong. \u201cI felt so much love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham crafts each prompt to be as inclusive as possible, acknowledging the various ways that a person might connect. She knows the illness experience is unique; for every person screaming \u201cF cancer,\u201d there is one who would rather not say the \u201cC word\u201d out loud or who views their illness as a gift.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I always say, \u2018If there is something on your mind and heart that you want to write about, ignore the prompt, because I\u2019m not checking,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But they rarely do.<\/p>\n

Joining the tribe <\/p>\n

Write about simple days, days when you feel that you have all you want to have. If those days are in the past, or if you never experienced that sort of day, you could write about one vibrant moment \u2014 with joy, regret, anger, or all of the above.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Burnham got her own cancer diagnosis: chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Burnham didn\u2019t tell the group, because that was a \u201cnothing burger,\u201d but \u201cwhen lymphoma joined the party,\u201d she sent a quick email saying she had joined their tribe.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s currently on maintenance medication and downplays her illness, saying that \u2014 with the exception of when she landed in the intensive care unit with sepsis \u2014 it is \u201czip, zero, zilch\u201d compared to \u201cabsolutely appalling experiences\u201d group members have shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might have felt a little bit sick. I might have felt I was tired or whatever,\u201d she said. \u201cSure, I lost my hair; big deal \u2014 it comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, the group has been a source of silent comfort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a kind of wordless support from these folks, just being there with them. It\u2019s not something I understood at first, but it definitely makes a difference,\u201d Burnham said. \u201cThese are my people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham has missed the group twice \u2014 once when her mother was dying, and the other time when she herself was gravely ill (and even then, she managed to send the group a prompt and \u201cthey went on with it, so I\u2019m not indispensable.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The sessions get emotional. After a particularly tough one, Burnham finds it helpful to talk with the social workers or do something physical, like work in her garden or cook a meal. No matter what, she leaves each meeting thinking, \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel so privileged and so honored to listen to these people,\u201d Burnham said. \u201cIt\u2019s enormously important to me. I love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article first ran on Penn Medicine\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\"\" MORE AMAZING PHILADELPHIA CITIZENS<\/p>\n

Deborah Burnham, standing in front of words from her workshop projected onto books. Photo by Margo Reed Studios. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting ready for a memorial service, Deborah Burnham, PhD, put on a black dress with a scoop neck.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29145,338,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-159355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-citizen-of-the-week","tag-healthcare","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}