No one was ever able to tell Bob Wakeham how he should live and, by God, no one was about to tell him how he should die." (John Furlong, CBC Radio, from the Foreword to For the Moment: A Memoir of Survival)

Bob Wakeham is a legendary figure at the CBC. A hard-working and hard-partying Newfoundlander, he had a whirlwind career in Atlantic Canada for 35 years as an award-winning producer of such popular shows as "Here and Now," "On Camera," "Soundings," and "Land and Sea." Then his whole world came crashing down.

In the fall of 2003 he learned he had colon cancer, which spread to his liver, and the prospects looked very grim. As Wakeham says in the introduction to For the Moment: A Memoir of Survival, nothing is the same after they give you the bad news. "Cancer can enter a normal, everyday existence in such shocking fashion [that] life with all its trials, its enjoyment, its wonder, and even all its banalities, can be turned bottom-up in an instant." Then the grim reality sets in seven months later: "I'm dying, for Christ's sake, and that's the bottom line." For a man accustomed to winning all his battles - whether in the "Mother Corporation" boardroom or in an occasional barroom brawl - this was going to be the toughest fight of his life.

For the Moment: A Memoir of Survival is the courageous story of a man who simply refused to die. He endured painful treatments, invasive operations, and even alternative medicines in the hope that something might save him. Meanwhile, his extraordinary wife, Heather Coultas, his family (now scattered across the continent), and a group of steadfast friends made certain he kept a promise to fight on - even when the diagnosis looked bleak.

Wakeham's memoir is more than just the story of one man's victory over cancer. It's a powerful, entertaining, and often amusing story of a journalist who lived his life to the fullest. For the Moment is also an unabashed love story about a passionate marriage based on deep and enduring life. "We're still madly in love, of course, more now than ever, if that's possible," confesses Wakeham.

For anyone who has ever been touched by illness, For the Moment offers a story of true courage and hope. It will reinforce your belief in the strength, grace, and charm of the human spirit.

Bob Wakeham has been a journalist in Newfoundland for almost forty-five years and has won numerous awards and accolades for his work. Bob began his career as a reporter with the Evening Telegram. From there he moved on to become an interviewer and commentator with CBC Radio. Then he became the executive producer for the CBC television supper-hour news program, Here and Now, and the documentary programs On Camera, Soundings, and Land and Sea. He is the author of a memoir called For the Moment, about his survival from cancer. Since his retirement from the CBC, Bob has been writing a weekly column for the Telegram. He and his wife, Heather Coultas, live in Flatrock. Bob’s maternal grandfather, Joe Judge, a native of Point Verde, Placentia Bay, and a long-time resident of Grand Falls, was wounded at Beaumont-Hamel.

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