Everyone is touched by cancer at one time or another in their lives.
It’s a generalization, I know. But this one happens to be true.
Think about it for a minute. If you haven’t had cancer, maybe you’ve had a family member go through the fight. No family members? Go down your list of friends. You’ll find someone. Guaranteed.
A few of those stories are going to be told this Saturday night at the Long Beach Cancer League’s Reach for the Stars Gala. Money raised for Long Beach Memorial Medical Center’s cancer research and treatment centers.
And I’m one of the “stars,” as the Cancer League calls us, telling our stories this year. I’m clearly the dimmest of the bunch, but if I can get someone to contribute a little more to the fight, I’m all for it.
I’m blessed. I haven’t been diagnosed with any of the myriad forms of cancer, at least so far. But like I said, everyone has been touched by the scourge. For me, it was my father.
Dad was a happy retiree — playing a lot of golf, helping out at the Elks Lodge and generally enjoying life in St. George, Utah (lots of golf courses there). St. George is about six hours from Long Beach, if the I-15 is clear.
One day in April 2009, shortly after we’d completed the pre-Grand Prix of Long Beach edition of the Grunion, I got a call. Dad had finished a round of golf, but couldn’t stop coughing, so he decided to go to urgent care. They checked him into the hospital, figuring it was pneumonia. He was 79, so they didn’t want to take chances.
Something told me a drive to St. George might be in order. It took a day to make arrangements, but my wife, Maria, and I made good time once we hit the road.
By the time I arrived, the doctors had diagnosed the problem as small cell lung cancer. It was very advanced, the oncologist said – he might have told me what stage, but I don’t recall. He was reluctant to start chemotherapy or any other treatment, but Dad never gave up on anything, so he said he…
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