06/01/2025
Today is National Cancer Survivors Day.
Today kicks off an entire month of honoring those who’ve faced cancer and fought cancer.
I was lucky enough to celebrate yesterday with the Cancer Centers of Sharp Healthcare.
It was a day to honor my kick-ass medical team. It was a day to, once again, thank the friends and family who walked alongside me, including my parents, Don and Josie, who called me just as I was walking into the event, as well as my sister, Annie, who called me after the event and listened to the stories I shared.
There was Tricia, my Torero sister and fellow survivor who has walked her own journey with an abundance of grace.
There was Darlene, who did my CT scan, saw the tumor I was up against and who’s been by my side ever since. She reconnected with some of the people who were there for her when she fought alongside her husband, Chris, who battled leukemia. To honor him, she wore a pin on her lapel, featuring a single drop of blood.
There was Kelsey, a fellow writer, storyteller and coastal cowgirl, whom I love like family.
And then there was Blanca, who was a day-to-day witness of my highest highs and lowest lows.
Kelsey and Blanca were also there when I wrote a book about my journey — watching as texts to friends were transformed into chapters and chapters became what is now called Love and Light.
Yesterday, they sat on either side of me — sharing my story with the survivors who stopped at my table … and listening as others shared their stories with us.
There was the young woman who was a counselor at a camp for children with cancer — a camp she, herself, had attended as a child.
There was Jeffrey, who gave me a copy of his book and took a copy of mine.
He caught my eye because he wore a name tag that said, “I Survived Testicular Cancer 31 Years.”
Thirty-one years. That gave me hope. He was an inspiration.
In just a matter of days … on June 12 … I’ll be celebrating my one-year anniversary of being cancer-free. I hope and pray I’ll survive 31 years! On that day, I will be 84 years old.
At the event, I had the honor of meeting men and women who were in their 70s and 80s. I also met a woman who was only 33 and had only recently received the news that she had breast cancer.
I talked with people whose name badges listed multiple cancers — cancers they were fighting simultaneously or cancers they fought one after the other after the other, with strength and stamina I could barely fathom.
Some of those cancers were old … and some were brand new.
I also met people who, like me, had colon cancer.
Linda, one of the event planners — who stopped at my table to confirm that I would be the keynote speaker at Sharp’s next event in the fall — said it was healing to meet people whose cancer is like yours.
And that happened for me.
I met one woman for whom the diagnosis of stage 3 colon cancer — a diagnosis that mirrored my own — was still fresh.
She stopped at my table, picked up my book and read the back cover, which starts with, “Written in real-time on her iPhone, Love and Light, tells the story of how one woman chose to face stage 3 colon cancer …”
She bursted into tears. They were tears I recognized.
They were tears that represented fear, but also strength, determination and resilience. Tears that carried an air of defiance. Tears that told the world, “I will beat this. I will survive. I am a survivor!”
To all those who’ve faced it and to all those who’ve said that, I honor you!
