I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It

I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It

35 Cancer Survivors Share Their Journey

By Savio P. Clemente, NBC-HWC

Copyright © 2022 Savio P. Clemente, NBC-HWC

The Human Resolve LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

First printing edition 2022

Published by Authority Magazine Press

3903 Labyrinth Rd

Baltimore, MD, 21215

www.authoritymag.co

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022902840

ISBN 979-8-9857595-0-1

ISBN 979-8-9857595-1-8 (ebook)

ISBN 979-8-9857595-2-5 (audiobook)

Dedication

None of us are promised a bed of roses in this life, but it’s my honor to shower you with flowers.

Mom & Dad — thank you for always believing in me.

Yitzi Weiner — this book would have never come to fruition without your support.

And to those unseen forces who have guided me along the way — the path illuminates with hope.

3

About the Author

Savio P. Clemente coaches cancer survivors to overcome the confusion and gain the clarity needed to get busy living in mind, body, and spirit. He inspires health and wellness seekers to find meaning in the why and to cultivate resilience in their mindset. Savio is a Board Certified wellness coach (NBC-HWC, ACC), syndicated columnist, podcaster, stage 3 cancer survivor, and founder of The Human Resolve LLC.

Savio has interviewed notable TV personalities, and is featured in prominent publications from Authority Magazine, Thrive Global to BuzzFeed. He has covered numerous wellness, technology, and travel industry events in the United States and abroad. His mission is to offer clients, listeners, and viewers alike tangible takeaways in living a truly healthy, wealthy, and wise lifestyle.

Savio pens a weekly newsletter where he delves into secrets from living smarter to feeding your

three brains — head, heart, and gut — in hopes of connecting the dots to those sticky parts in our nature that matter. He lives in the suburbs of Westchester County, New York and continues to follow his boundless curiosity. Savio hopes to one day live out a childhood fantasy and explore outer space.

For more information: www.isurvivedcancer.co

Accelerated Path Coaching: www.thehumanresolve.com

Instagram & Twitter: @thehumanresolve

LinkedIn: @saviopclemente

4

Table of Contents

Dedication ........................................................................................................................................................ 3

About the Author .............................................................................................................................................. 4

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 7

Allen Chankowsky: I Survived (Carcinoma) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ..................................................... 13

Amanda Rice of The Chick Mission: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ................................... 27

Chloe Harrouche of The Lanby: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ......................................... 32

Author Christine Handy: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ................................................... 39

Dr. De Vida Gill: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ............................................................... 45

Google’s Eve McDavid: I Survived (Cervical) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It.................................................... 51

Flora Migyanka of The Dynami Foundation: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ....................... 58

Grant Lottering: I Survived (Melanoma) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ........................................................ 64

Howard Katz: I Survived (Pancreatic) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ............................................................ 69

Jaclyn Downs: I Survived (Lymphoma) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ........................................................... 80

Jaculin H. Jones: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ............................................................... 89

Janelle Hail of National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF): A Story of Hope and Inspiration ............................. 94

Javacia Harris Bowser of See Jane Write: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ............................101

Jennifer Brown of PinnacleCare: I Survived (Ovarian) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It .................................... 106

Joanna Chanis: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ................................................................. 112

Josh Mailman of WARMTH: I Survived (Pancreatic Neuroendocrine) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It .............. 119

Judy Pearson: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It .................................................................. 126

Kelley Skoloda of KS Consulting & Capital: I Survived (Colon) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ........................ 131

Kim Hunter Heard: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It .......................................................... 137

Lisa Lurie: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ....................................................................... 143

Lisa Winston of Soul Expression Coaching: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ....................... 151

Liz Benditt of The Balm Box: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It............................................ 159

Lou Torres of LUNGevity Foundation: I Survived (Lung) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ............................... 168

Marianne Sarcich: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ........................................................... 174

Former Comcast & AT&T CEO Mike Armstrong: I Survived (Prostate) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ........... 183

Nick Lynch of Collidescope: I Survived (Kidney) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ............................................ 189

Parul Somani: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It.................................................................. 195

Rob Paulsen of ‘Animaniacs’ & ‘Pinky and the Brain:’ I Survived (Throat) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ....... 203

Dr. Ruby Lathon of Roadmap to Holistic Health: I Survived (Thyroid) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ........... 212

Selena Murphy: I Survived (Multiple Myeloma) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ............................................. 217

Stephanie Scalise: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ............................................................ 223

Talaya Dendy of On the Other Side: I Survived (Lymphoma) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ......................... 230

Ted Elliott of Copado: I Survived (Colon) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ...................................................... 239

Author Tiffany Easley: I Survived (Ovarian) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It .................................................. 244

Yolanda Origel of Cancer Kinship: I Survived (Breast) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It ................................... 250

Author Request ..............................................................................................................................................260

Introduction

was born in Mumbai, India, but my ancestral heritage is from Goa, India, a former Portuguese colony located on the southwestern coast. My family and I moved to the United States in the I late ’70s when I was only three years old. Throughout my elementary and high school years in the suburbs of Westchester County, New York, I was a sensitive child who was plagued by social anxiety and a stuttering impediment. I went to a Catholic elementary school and served as an altar boy, but there were always these lingering questions about life that kept me up at night.

While in college at Fordham University in New York City, I faced several challenges from sexual identity to speaking my mind and expressing my individuality. Needless to say, I spent most of my formative years searching for meaning.

In July of 2014, I was visiting London and Amsterdam with a friend and noticed that my bed sheets the next morning were completely drenched with sweat. Fast forward a week later, my stomach eventually grew distended. At the insistence of my naturopath, I received a sonogram and was informed that I should visit the nearest hospital. An hour later, I was admitted to the 5th floor. After a bone marrow aspiration and nephrostomy procedure, I was given the grim diagnosis of Stage 3 Diffuse Large B-cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (DLBCL), a blood cancer affecting 70,000 plus individuals yearly.

I couldn’t help thinking the road to recovery would be paved with much burden to family and friends. Strangely enough, a sense of calm enveloped me. My fifteen day stay at the hospital included a thoracentesis which drained over five liters of peritoneal fluid in the space between my lungs and chest, a handful of CT scans throughout my upper and lower cavity, and a recommendation from the Medical Director that I should start first my round of R-CHOP

chemotherapy.

Cancer is not something which magically appears without the furtherance of a cause. Even if it cannot be fully understood by medical science, it is something that unfortunately manifests due to variables beyond our human comprehension.

There is great purpose in the darkness that we must "learn to sit with " asserts author and theologian Barbara Brown Taylor. This was just my particular challenge. I needed to rise above and find a way to meet my higher self. My physical body was dis-eased, but my mind certainly wasn’t, and neither was my spirit. This is the kind of grit psychologist and educator Angela Lee Duckworth speaks of in her TED Talk presentation. It is available to all, but requires sticking with it — living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

As the tears flowed down my cheeks waiting to hear if I would be yet another victim of the big C, I made a decision to choose life. Deep within my thoughts all I kept hearing was: find the middle 7

way; to know thyself is to heal thyself. Scenes from the movie Little Buddha flashed before my eyes,

" If you tighten the string too much it will snap, and if you leave it too slack, it won’t play ."

An integrative path is what I eventually chose to follow and was cancer-free four months later in December of 2014. I focused all my energies like a laser beam on the healing process and left no stone unturned. I scoured through medical journals, incorporated biohacking techniques, setup Google news alerts, joined Facebook groups, found passages in the Christian Bible, read Buddhist texts, and even searched for wisdom in the Quran.

When you start your journey with cancer the goal is remission, but I am also wise enough to know the experience came into my life for a reason. Where it would eventually lead was still a mystery.

I once heard Brendon Burchard, New York Times best-selling author and personal development coach say, It is okay you don't have all the answers but you better have the ambition to grow. Up until that point I felt that I needed to figure everything out before I could ever facilitate a meaningful conversation with someone. What I learned is that you can still help someone because your life path and your struggles can illuminate where they sit today. It wasn't until I hit my five year remission mark that I had the courage to pursue my Board Certification and thus establish my coaching career. Up until that point, it seemed too far-fetched of an idea.

Despite my remission status, the experience left me with more questions than answers — from the fear of recurrence to the anxiety of future side effects, and the emotional toll of survivor’s guilt. I quickly learned it was not only about dealing with the physical aspect of cancer, but about the totality of the human experience; connecting to all 7 energy centers. I am now free of cancer for seven years and coach cancer survivors. I help them overcome the confusion and gain the clarity needed to get busy living in mind, body, and spirit.

Here is an interesting story that taught me a lot. Early in my career, I was in such a hurry to facilitate a transformation for my client that I created a mind map in advance and plotted key areas to explore. I was so eager to dig into my creation that I wasn't truly listening to their needs.

My client just wanted to be accepted where they were on that journey. They were seeking the true meaning of empathy; understanding what the other person is experiencing and feeling. It was a course correction because even though my intentions were noble, I realized that I can't control where they will ultimately land. Sometimes a person just needs to be heard. All I can do is hold space for that request.

And this leads me to why I felt this book was needed. After interviewing nearly 175 cancer survivors for my series with Authority Magazine and its syndication in Thrive Global, I felt the urge to give voice in book form to their inspiring stories. I wanted to highlight what they learned physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually from this very difficult experience which has forever shaped their worldview. My intention is to spread hope for second chances — that there is life after cancer and we are here to support each other through each and every battle.

Seeing my name printed on the cover lights me because I am able to tell the story of those who have faced the ultimate fight and are still here to pick up the broken pieces.

8

This book was written with a purpose, and here are the main lessons that I hope readers take away after finishing this book.

Physical

Live fully the human experience. For many decades, I was so caught up in living a spiritually fulfilling life, that I neglected the things that made me human. I would scoff and think that my spiritual awareness was far greater than anything else. But through my cancer recovery, I have come to learn that we are meant to embody all that life sends our way, and in order for us to be truly grateful, we must therefore fully immerse ourselves in both extremes.

Resource the right energy. Food can be satisfying as it can be harmful. Know what you are putting into your body and what you want to get out of it. A little indulgence is a good thing and food prep can be a lifesaver, but I've often found that when I have slowed down enough to figure out what my body is actually yearning for, have I been able to make the right decisions. In the book Women Food and God, Geneen Roth states, "Food is only the middleman, the means to the end.

Of altering your emotions. Of making yourself numb. Of creating a secondary problem when the original problem becomes too uncomfortable." This quote was an eye-opener in how I viewed my relationship with food and the emotions linked to them. It allowed me to separate the biological need for eating versus the want for indulgence. It helped me see that the automaticity of choice and action are intertwined. It wasn't until that moment that my outlook on food changed from sabotage to healing.

Check in with the three brains. Documented studies in neuroscience have proven that we indeed have more than one brain. Known in embodiment circles as multiple brain integration — the head, heart, and gut holds deep inner wisdom that can help us connect the dots to those sticky parts in our nature that matter. Like a detective with their magnifying glass, we can examine our bodies like instruments looking for clues. As the saying goes, the body knows.

View your body as a stranger. Try the simple tactic of tuning into your heart. What words, images, and feelings are coming up for you? If your heart could talk, what would it say? What wisdom does it have to share with you? The heart holds not only painful memories from our past, but through the lived experience it collates those significant moments for greater understanding.

Mental

The benefits of meditation have been quite profound in my life. Meditation supports the practice of surrendering. Meditation aided in my ability to successfully process my stage 3 cancer diagnosis. Contrary to popular belief, meditation is not about blissing out, but about finding the bliss inward. Meditation requires effort that never ceases because living is the only choice we have.

9

Make to-do, will-do. I love flipping the script from the dreaded to-do which I sometimes never even get to completing, to will-do; a few simple but important tasks that need our attention stat.

Doing so not only eliminates the clutter in and around your environment, but it helps strengthen your will in getting it done no matter the excuses.

Create a gratitude journal. This is my favorite ritual for mental wellness — the ability to check in with yourself at the end of the day and figure out why those things you are grateful for actually took shape and form. It helps you savor the feeling so it can continue long after.

A quote which resonates deeply is, Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you, spoken by author and spiritual leader Marianne Williamson. This was a powerful reminder to always put my best foot forward even when failure might be lurking around the corner. It has helped me follow paths that many in my social circle have feared to tread. It continues to inspire me to keep moving forward despite the insistence of some to stand still. It is central to what I believe to be true—life is what you make of it…there must be equal amounts of sorrow, so you can truly appreciate the joy.

Emotional

Emotions as a divining rod. Explore your emotions like a treasure map. Where is the emotion pulling you? What are you fixated on that needs letting go of? What emotions are being suppressed? What do you really want? I use breath as a way to channel my emotions, even the unresolved ones. Conscious breathing is about energizing those frozen feelings that are often trapped.

I've had many people come in and out of my life, and sometimes not by choice. The person who gave me the most encouragement was a good friend who I built a close relationship with for nearly twenty years. She taught me to always seek the deeper meaning and to confront myself continuously. It is the only way to polish the facets of your character, she would say. Although we are no longer in contact, I will always cherish the time spent. Sometimes loss teaches you to not only let go, but to acknowledge that the love you did let in changed you for the better.

Spiritual

Detach from your triggers. Those who think spiritual wellness is all about meditating, breathing, chanting, and performing elaborate yoga poses are clueless. Spiritual wellness is a daily practice and requires work as it challenges the basis for our understanding of the human condition. If you can view life from a slightly detached perspective, it can give you greater clarity in how to proceed no matter what obstacle lies in your path.

10

Spirituality is connecting to something greater than ourselves. When out in nature, we can appreciate the beauty and share in its infinite glow. It is a reminder that although our lives here are fleeting, nature always finds a way.

Seek the truth in everything. It's been said that truth is like a gemstone. There are slivers of truth in every facet of the stone. When it comes to our spiritual life, we must cultivate an understanding of acceptance. Although some may be misguided and differ from our perspective, spiritual wellness teaches us compassion for all things seen and unseen.

There are so many books about cancer out there. Why is this one important and unique? A singular thread that runs through each of the 35 cancer survivor stories highlighted in this book is that true transformation is not granted through wishful thinking, but through willful action. None of us truly knows why cancer came into our lives. But we have a choice, and that choice is for us to honor the pain, but not live by its shackles.

There is a concept in coaching called The Transtheoretical Model. It posits that true lasting change is based on a series of steps. It suggests that people are not resistant to change; they just don't know how to successfully move through these stages. Implementing change behavior is tricky. It requires discipline, focus, and restriction at times. In order to get comfortable in the uncomfortable we must move through our feelings and motives into deliberate action.

Here is a broader impact that I hope that this book can help bring about — a movement around bartering. I believe all of us have innate gifts and talents but are often caught up in receiving monetary gain for our time and energy which often separates us from our why. It would be wonderful if we could spend just one day helping, aiding, and consoling one another without expecting anything in return. I am curious how this simple shift in mindset could alter things in our world.

11

12

Allen Chankowsky: I Survived (Carcinoma) Cancer and Here Is How I Did It

Photo Credits: Eric Benchimol Photography

Appreciate your caregivers and show them that they matter too. I know this one well, because I fell into the trap of becoming overwhelmingly consumed with my awful prognosis that I neglected the emotional needs my girlfriend Cynthia. Think about it — if your caregivers aren’t coping well, how can they be expected to take care of you? By acknowledging and appreciating them, you’re not only being sensitive to their needs but you’re also investing back into your own care by helping them cope better.

Yes — you can help them in simple ways. Maybe they need to speak to a mental health professional.

13

C ancer is a horrible and terrifying disease. Yet millions of people have beaten the odds. Authority Magazine created a series called I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It. In this interview series, we spoke to cancer survivors to share their stories, in order to offer hope and provide strength to people who are being impacted by cancer today.

As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Allen Chankowsky. Allen is a sales promotion marketing expert specializing in contest promotion strategy and execution. He is celebrating his 30-year survivorship of two types of cancer, including his stage 4 terminal diagnosis in 2016 where the chances of him surviving five years were less than 20%. Against all odds, through Allen’s hands-on approach fueled by the love of his life Cynthia, they actively researched and managed his cancer resulting in him outliving his diagnosis and becoming an exceptional cancer survivor. In his highly anticipated book release, On the Other Side of TERMINAL, Allen shares his incredible 30-year story of survival that serves to inspire and teach others about the steps he took to achieve the state of radical remission. His goal is to help as many people as possible to do the same.

Originally from Montreal, Allen lives in Toronto, Canada with his two children, Ethan and Hila and his girlfriend Cynthia and her two children, Elena and Hayden. In his spare time, Allen can be found winning backgammon tournaments at the United States Backgammon Federation, where he won the Intermediate Division at the 2021 US Open.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! We really appreciate the courage it takes to publicly share your story. Before we start, our readers would love to

get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your childhood backstory?

hank you Savio. Congratulations on your own survival of stage 3 cancer. I applaud you and the editorial team at Authority Magazine for taking the bold step in publishing this series. I T also congratulate every contributor for their decision to share their own vulnerability through difficult emotions and intimate details of their cancer journey.

I was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1969, joining my family as the youngest sibling to my two older brothers. My parents, who we are blessed to still have with us today, are practical (Mom) and very sociable (Dad) people with a very healthy sense of humor. A typical day growing up would often include several off-colour jokes at the dinner table from my Dad who continues to be a quintessential showman at the age of 84. The content of his jokes together with their delivery usually resulted in contagious giggling and sometimes full-on belly laughs lasting several minutes and often requiring some recovery before resuming dinner. Good times!!

From an early age, I embraced the friendships I developed as a schoolboy and to this day, I’m so incredibly proud of the fact that at 52, I remain close with the vast majority of them. These friends are people of great character, each with their own unique sense of humor and individuality. The mixture of our personalities when together is infectious and have us all coming back for more at any opportunity. The group is so devoutly loyal to one another that we would literally do anything 14

to help each other, no matter the consequences. They say that one can be judged by the company one keeps and I am honored to be judged by anyone, anywhere, based on the people I call friends.

To me, they are brothers, and as a family we all count on each other.

The parental modeling I had was generally one where the seriousness of life was often blunted by comedic relief. This taught me that difficult life events are often easier to accept if they are received and then approached in a way that is less about negativity and more about the life lessons that are imbedded within the event. For example, when a particular societal issue would be news-of-the-day, the jokes that would inevitability ensue would serve to highlight the issues by examining them through laughter rather than addressing them directly through more traditional conversation. This mostly worked; however, there was one life event that occurred in 1988 that could not, under any circumstance, lend itself to examination through a comedic lens. On July 14th of that year, one of my siblings, at the age of 23, died in a car accident and my family was thrust into the depths of exquisite pain that was to last a lifetime. I was 19, and short of grieving the loss of my paternal grandfather 8 years earlier, I never had exposure to such intense emotional turmoil. Never had I seen my parents brought to their knees and express unimaginable emotions of loss that they themselves never knew possible. Until that day, my privileged childhood shielded me from situations that involved untenable emotional destruction. The bubble of my childhood innocence had been pierced and I was forced to grow up quickly. I not only lost one of my brothers, I also lost part of my parents and they in turn lost pieces of themselves and of each other. Still, we as a family soldiered on together and moved forward with our individual lives best we could. I moved on to higher education, first pursuing a path in Life Sciences and then out of necessity (more on that below), I changed my focus of study to Environmental Sciences, receiving my Bachelor of Arts from Concordia University in Montreal in 1994.

Can you please give us your favorite Life Lesson Quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

— Christopher Columbus

I knew from an early age that my fears must be directly addressed if I was to have the best opportunity of overcoming them. Life has knocked me down continuously, however, rather than take the easy way out by allowing myself to be anchored down by the fear of getting up, I gathered myself together, stood up, looked the fear straight in its eyes and didn’t back down. The alternative was simply non-negotiable. Never looking back, I have paved many paths for myself because I pushed myself to move forward. The conscious act of not looking back and not allowing the shackles of emotional and physical turmoil to define who I am is deeply satisfying. The elation of self-empowerment by removing the shackles of fear and freeing yourself to move forward is something that I hope we can all achieve.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about surviving cancer. Do you feel comfortable sharing with us the story surrounding how you found out that you had cancer?

15

Yes, and thank you for asking. I first met cancer in 1991 when I was 21 and in the throes of achieving my undergraduate degree. This version of cancer was dressed as stage 2 Hodgkin’s Disease, a blood cancer. It first revealed part of itself as a lump above my left clavicle. This was a sign to look deeper into my chest via an array of imaging scans that exposed the bulk of a massive tumor sitting smack in the middle of my chest. Over the course of two agonizing months, I was successfully treated with radiation therapy targeted to the chest, head/neck and abdomen. In 1991, the use of ABVD chemotherapy (Adriamycin, Bleomycin, Vinblastine and Dacarbazine) was usually reserved for stage 3 and 4 Hodgkin’s Disease. While there was some debate as to its utility in my case, my oncology team in Montreal decided that radiation alone should be used as the approach of choice for eliminating this malignant threat to my life. The thinking at the time was that by doing so, damage caused by the radiation to collateral tissue would be limited to the periphery of the radiation field rather than damage done to my whole body with systemic chemotherapy. Spoiler alert: radiation probably wasn’t the best choice…

During the course of my radiation treatment and in my quest to seek and learn everything about Hodgkin’s Disease and radiation therapy, I came across a book from Dr. Mortimer J. Lacher and Dr. John R. Redman titled Hodgkin’s Disease: The Consequences of Survival. I thought the title to be intriguing and foretelling. The major theme of their work revolved around the long-term effects of surviving Hodgkin’s Disease. Reading the book etched a permanent stain on my brain because I wanted so desperately to be a long-term survivor and, if I was lucky enough to become one, I also needed to be prepared for the possible consequences.

In the two decades that followed, I was in the best physical shape of my life — or so I thought. I ran 4 times a week and completed my first half-marathon in 2012. Then, in 2013 at the age of 43, I suffered a heart attack after a training run and required two cardiac stents be installed to open the blockages. The underlying heart disease was a direct consequence of the radiation from 1991. It turns out that the body doesn’t forget what happened to it. Ever so slowly, the tissues of my cardiovascular system were reacting to the insult of the repeated radiation to my chest from 1991.

But my cardiovascular system wasn’t the only area of my body that didn’t forget…

Three years after my 2013 heart attack, I discovered a lump on the right side of my neck in July of 2016. A fine needle biopsy of that lump confirmed cancer; however, it was unclear what type of cancer. A head/neck oncology surgeon from The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto was asked to perform what is known as a neck dissection to assess for the type of cancer and the extent of its spread. I remember the day of surgery very well. The extent of the neck dissection was as invasive as the cancer itself. Most of the removed lymph nodes (and there were more than 20) were positive for cancer. A bad cancer. A very, very bad cancer. This time the cancer had dressed itself up as salivary duct carcinoma, and it made its presence known in an extremely aggressive way by spreading to neck muscles and surrounding tissue. This second cancer

developed as another direct consequence of the radiation I had received 25 years earlier. The lymph nodes affected in my neck were now pregnant and swelling with one of the worst head/neck cancers that one could suffer, and the story only gets worse. It was stage 4, otherwise known to be the worst of the worst stages of cancer known to humanity. Despite the skilled hands of an amazing surgeon, the cancer ensured that I would always know of its presence by the resulting hole that followed the removal of half of my right neck. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I 16

was also left with a slash across the underside of my throat like a victim of a knife fight. I had effectively been maimed for all to see and gawk at in public. That used to bother me, a lot. But now, I wear my maimed neck proudly as it reflects part of my survivorship. How can’t I be proud of that? It’s normal human behavior to be drawn to the unusual. It’s like a moth that can’t help itself when it’s drawn to the flame. So I understand how my neck attracts looks in public. I accept it just as I accept other types of behavior traits as being part of the human condition. Rarely do I engage, however, it’s oddly satisfying when on occasion, I catch someone looking and I ask them if they want to get a closer look. Most react by quickly turning away without saying a word. Some apologize. But one thing is certain, they could all line up in single file to