About the program

"I am writing this because of the infinite love I have for my family, and it also makes me feel good to write. I will never re-read what I have written."

So begins the diary of Peter J. Morgan, M.D., a physician who at age 29, learned he had terminal cancer.

Cancer: A Personal Voyage is an intimate one-hour documentary, chronicling the last two years in the life of Dr. Morgan. It reveals Dr. Morgan's unique and often conflicting insights and inner feelings about living and dying with cancer.

Produced and directed by Ruth Yorkin Drazen, and presented nationally on public television by WHYY-TV Philadelphia, Cancer: A Personal Voyage sheds light on issues with which we all fear, but still must grapple. It will be broadcast on PBS at 9 on Friday, June 27, 1997. Consult local listings for airtimes in your area.

Actor Matthew Broderick, whose own father died of cancer, reads poignant excerpts from Dr. Morgan's diary. The film also features interviews with Dr. Morgan before his death at age 31, his family, friends and colleague.

Producer Drazen met Dr. Morgan when filming her first documentary for public television, When Doctors Get Cancer. Dr. Morgan was featured in that film, and because of their mutual respect, he agreed to be interviewed during his illness. After his death in February 1994, Dr. Morgan's mother, Patricia, gave Drazen her son's diary to read, and shortly thereafter permission to use it in the documentary.

According to Drazen: "This film is critical to life. It teaches that we need to be in touch with what's most important to each of us before we become ill. We can have something wonderful in life -- even with the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads -- if we know who we are inside."

Cancer: A Personal Voyage reveals the multiple sides of Dr. Morgan's journey. His outgoing optimism is captured in interviews filmed during his illness and is contrasted with the dark side of his psyche as revealed in his dairy. He is portrayed as a healer who continued to help others, while, he, the patient, could not be healed physically.

In his diary, the young doctor compared his plight to that of a Holocaust victim. One has to be ready to give up everything at any time and start anew, he wrote. He reflected that concentration camp victims had the strength to do that. Life, he reflected, has to be lived, not collected like material things.

Dr. Morgan's most important legacy was to write his diary. In it producer Drazen said, "he demonstrated man's capacity to transcend pain and suffering and to live each moment to its fullest. He lived as he believed. He worked, he loved, and he looked up at the stars."

Cancer: A Personal Voyage is made possible by Glaxo Wellcome, which has a long history of discovery, developing and marketing a variety of oncology products.