Hazel Grace was diagnosed with a terminal form of thyroid cancer.
Hazel Grace Lancaster is the novel’s narrator and 16-year-old protagonist. An astute and remarkably conscientious girl, Hazel was diagnosed at age of 13 with a terminal form of thyroid cancer that has since spread to her lungs. She keeps most people at a distance, knowing her death will ultimately hurt them, until she falls in love with Augustus, a young man with osteosarcoma who becomes her boyfriend.
Thyroid cancer is a disease that you get when abnormal cells begin to grow in your thyroid gland. It is an uncommon type of cancer. Most people who have it do very well, because the cancer is usually found early and the treatments work well. After it is treated, thyroid cancer may come back, sometimes many years after treatment.
See The Fault in Our Stars character list at SparkNotes.
Sadly, Dalton Prager, a young man who received national attention because both he and his wife had cystic fibrosis, died this weekend of the disease at age 25.
Prager met his wife, Katie, online when the two were 18-year-olds, according to CNN. Because they both had cystic fibrosis, they were warned against ever meeting in person, since two people with the condition can spread bacteria to each other, which can result in life-threatening infections.
But the pair met anyway, and had a five-year marriage before Dalton's death on Saturday (Sept. 17), CNN said. Katie is currently receiving hospice care for cystic fibrosis at her home in Kentucky. The couple's story has been compared to the novel "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green (Dutton Books, 2012), which tells the story of two young couple with terminal cancer who meet and fall in love. Read more of the news at LiveScience.
Check out 7 Tips on Dealing with a Loved One's Terminal Illness, shared by AllWomensTalk.