At a photo shoot in a St-Henri warehouse, everyone is working towards the same goal: Having hope and showing courage in the face of cancer.

Getting a cancer diagnosis can be devastating, but survivor William Brock is hoping to help others with the disease – one word and one picture at a time.

“People often think of cancer as an illness. But for the person who is diagnosed, it’s not an illness, it's an existential crisis,” said the photographer and lawyer. “I want people to have examples, because when I was sick I didn't have positive examples.”

Brock was diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2004. He's alive because of a successful stem cell transplant.

“I've truly been given a second life, and I have to give back. I have to help others,” he said.

His new project, a book called The Word, will be published by next September.

“It’s a series of portraits: 75 different people who have had all sorts of cancers. Young people, old people, men, women, children. A single portrait coupled in each case by a word – a word chosen by each person,” he said.

“People have chosen amazing words: Words like tsunami, words like reborn, words like family, words like hope, words like courage.”

Brock's group of 75 is still being formed. Some are friends, others referred by doctors.

“I chose the word ‘limitless,’” said Aleksey Cameron, an MBA candidate who is also a cancer survivor. “I would say experiencing a cancer diagnosis it just kind of opened up the floodgates.”

Cameron said fighting cancer was terrible, but she has the gift of a new perspective in the aftermath.

“Everything is open, everything is doable, everything is possible after going through something like that,” she said.

Twenty-six year-old lawyer Jemmy Nelson was diagnosed in August with Stage 2 breast cancer.

“I was working, living downtown, living the young adult professional life and not really expecting this kind of news, like I took my health for granted,” she said.

The same day as her photo shoot, she had undergone chemotherapy.

Thanks to sponsors, Brock will provide the book to hospitals, so patients can receive it after their diagnosis.

“Hopefully everybody looking at the book will find someone they can identify with and someone they can gain comfort from,” he said.

Cancer isn't the end, he said. It's not even the beginning of the end: “It's what Churchill called the end of the beginning. That's what the book is about.”