On an honor that really matters

I was presented with the Volunteer Award for Excellence in Advocacy during the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s annual Leadership Summit on Sunday, Sept. 26.

The award is presented to a volunteer who consistently demonstrates excellence in advocacy for cancer policy. It is the highest honor ACS CAN bestows on a volunteer. I’m now part of a small group of 14 recipients in the organization’s 20-year history.

Unlike my previous post, this wasn’t recognition I chased. It came to me. Out of the blue. In the form of a phone call that brought me to tears, and a nomination by my ACS CAN staff partner.

More on all that in a minute.

There are many people to be grateful for during my cancer and cancer advocacy journeys, including a long list of people who have been there from the beginning, and a few that have been added over time. I’m grateful I got to thank many of them in my acceptance speech for the award, the text of which follows. I hope you enjoy.

Thank you so much! I’m grateful and still quite gobsmacked to receive this honor. 

When Sandi Cassese [president of the ACS CAN Board of Directors] called to tell me I was receiving this award I was, true story, driving home from a sporting clays tournament where I had been pitching Lights of Hope. I had to pull over because I suddenly found myself driving on a five-lane highway nearly blinded by the tears. 

Not bad for a guy who’s supposed to be dead, am I right?

I have give credit for my cancer survival to my amazing surgeon, Dr. Greg Midis, and everyone on my medical team. Without Dr. Midis, my medical team — and God — I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. 

When he freed me from his care four years ago, Dr. Midis walked into the room and asked, “ what do you do when you get 20, 30, 40 years of life you weren’t supposed to get? You go out and live an amazing life.”

Boy, it sure has been amazing! 

Look at our legacy from just the last few years: we helped secure major increases in federal research funding, including the Cancer Moonshot and 21st Century Cures Act. We got passed the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act, and the Henrietta Lacks Enhancing Cancer Research Act, and we’ve come SO close to passing the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act. I pray to God this is the year Congress makes that happen. 

The first person I ever knew who had cancer was my dad’s cousin whom we called Uncle Bob. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when I was 21. I went to see him at the hospital not long before he passed away. While the man in the bed didn’t look like Bob, his spirit was still there. I was heart-broken when he died, and my memories of him are a big part of what drives me as a cancer advocate.

In March 2012, I heard the words “you have cancer,” myself. Until that moment, cancer was a theoretical construct. I worked for the American Cancer Society and ACS CAN at the time. I knew people who had cancer, many who survived and some who died, but now this thing was happening to me.

I started using my voice to tell my cancer story almost from the moment of diagnosis — to my community, to the media, to my followers on social media and, of course, to lawmakers. As media advocacy director for my division and then for the South region, I delivered media advocacy and messaging training to hundreds of staff and volunteers. Suddenly, I was putting that training to use myself.  

In 2014 I left ACS CAN but came back six months later. The Tennessee Government Relations Director at the time, invited me to represent my state at the One Degree campaign kickoff. During that event, I was doing all of the things I had trained volunteers to do for years — I was on message with lawmakers, I did media interviews, I sent text messages to friends asking them to take action to support us. 

I was all in, and before I left Washington DC I agreed to become Tennessee’s SLA and I have absolutely loved every second of serving in this role. 

There are so many people to thank tonight, and I have to begin with my wife, whom many of you know as the lovely Sarah, for her steadfast support. She’s the greatest caregiver in the world and for some reason supports everything I do as a cancer advocate. 

Thank you to my friends and family for being part of the journey. Thanks particularly to mom, and to Stan Wilkerson, Clarke Hinkle, Lewis Runnion, Zane Hagy, Adam Brown, Pastor Amy, Pastor John, Kim Isenberg, Lori Tucker, Vicki Williams, Wendy West, Pam Bonee, and everyone else on a list that’s too long to read… you know who you are, I hope.  

Thank you to Emily Ogden, my Government Relations Director, for nominating me for this honor. Emily is, without question, the best staff partner in the country and we make a great team.

Thank you to all of our ACS CAN staff partners, from Lisa Lacasse on down, for your continuous support and encouragement, for all the tools, messaging and training, and for just being all around fabulous to work with.  

Thank you to my ACT Leads in Tennessee. Brittney, Sarah, Misty, Kim, Shannon, Christie, Jamelia and Teresa, thank you for everything. We don’t get to see each other in person often enough, but I’m glad to know we’re in this together.  

Finally, thank you to to all of you, my fellow advocates and friends. None of what we accomplish happens in a vacuum. We are at our strongest when we fight cancer together. My dream for all of us is to arrive at that someday when cancer is remembered as a relic of history. 

Do I wish I had never heard the words, “you have cancer?” Of course, but I did hear those words. 

So in closing allow me to echo Frodo’s words  in the Fellowship of the Ring when he tells Gandalf he wishes that destroying the One Ring had not become his responsibility. 

He says, “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

“So do all who live to see such times,” Gandalf replies. “But that is not for them to decide. All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given us.”

With the time that has been given to me I’m going to keep fighting cancer. While I have breath, this is my fight. 

Thank you so much! Have a great rest of Leadership Summit and Lobby Day.