"Life is a beautiful place." This sums up how Karen Lee Sobol sees the world, and her choice to always believe in the best possible outcome.
In February 2005, Karen Lee was diagnosed with Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia, a blood cancer defined as both rare and incurable. She chose to enroll in a clinical trial with a biology-based experimental drug. She became and remains cancer-free.
Thanks to her courage and willingness to take a very big risk, and to many other patients who do the same, finding a cure for WM becomes increasingly likely.
Before, during, and after her twelve weeks in the clinical trial, Karen Lee embraced Integrative Medicine. Meditation, Tibetan singing bowls, and Reiki energy healing supported her through her medical challenges and recovery.
She believes that medicine, like art, is a creative process. She illustrates her memoir with her art.
Since its publication in 2012, Twelve Weeks has been helping save people's lives around the world. For patients, caregivers, and medical professionals, this book is useful and inspiring. As we navigate our way through COVID-19, Karen Lee's experience provides guidance and a vision for health and resilience.
Artist, author, architect, and advocate, Karen Lee Sobol explores our spiritual and physical realms. In many media, her art celebrates nature and human nature. An alumna of Radcliffe College and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Karen Lee has exhibited her work at both. Abroad, her work has been shown in Amsterdam, Cracow, and Tblisi. Her memoir—Twelve Weeks: An Artist's Story of Cancer, Healing, and Hope—is illustrated with her art.
An affiliated artist with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Karen Lee expands her reach in the worlds of art and science. Her service includes the New England Aquarium, Save Venice/Boston chapter, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.