In the summer of 2005 YourStory began a partnership with the Huntsman Cancer Hospital to record the life story of any cancer patient who requested this service. To date, over 1,200 individuals have recorded their personal histories, providing both a lasting legacy for their families and friends, and a time of reflection during the treatment process. The following stories demonstrate the rich range of experiences shared by those touched by a cancer diagnosis. Primarily these stories are about lives lived fully and not about the struggles these remarkable people have had.

David Tea

YourStory: Record and Remember is a program that initially grew out of a course taught by Professor Meg Brady of the Department of English at the University of Utah. As the 2003-2004 University Professor, Brady developed a new interdisciplinary course in “The Life Story” to train students in interviewing strategies and the narrative genres of memoir and life history; this course was at the core of the YourStory endeavor. It provided students with the necessary skills and understandings to carry out the important work of life story preservation, and at the same time created a vital link between the students’ university experiences and their service to the larger community.

Students in this course have collected the life stories of individuals at the Multi-Ethnic Senior High-rise, the Indian Walk-In Center and at various hospice organizations in Salt Lake City. In consultation with the Dean of Humanities and the Chair of the English Department, Brady developed the YourStory program. Devoted to the recording and preservation of the life stories of all Utahns, the program’s first location was inside the Museum of Utah Art & History in downtown Salt Lake City; it included a studio for recording life story interviews where a trained facilitator guided individuals in telling their stories and took care of all the technical aspects of making a recording. Later, the YourStory offices moved to the Chase Museum of Utah Folk Art in Liberty Park. With permission, these narratives were also archived at the University’s Marriott Library, where family members can access them for generations to come. 

David Tea

UofUYourStory