Jerry Mathers
April 28th, 2008
Having diabetes came as a big shock to me. When I finished “Leave it to Beaver”, I went to a regular high school. I did a little acting…Lassie, My Three Sons…but I pretty much withdrew from the acting profession. I came back to it later in life, and appeared on a new show called “The New Leave it to Beaver” which I did for 10 years…102 episodes…and those were long hours. I had a fairly young family at the time, two daughters and a son. And, I’d be away from the house for 12-14 hours a day. So when I finished that show I said…”You know, I’m gonna retire now, this is the good life.” I started eating way too much, and not doing a lot of exercise. I put on about 45 or 50 pounds. When I was getting ready to turn 50, a good friend who is a doctor cajoled me into get checked. I finally went in, and she asked me if I wanted to see my kids get married and hold my grandbabies. I said…of course! That’s when she told me that if I didn’t do something about my high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, I’d be dead in three to five years.
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Joey Pantoliano
April 4th, 2008
I was making my latest movie, Canvas, where I play the husband of a woman with schizophrenia. My research, and the experience of making the film, got me thinking about myself.
Several days before we started shooting, I talked to a friend of mine, Charlie, who actually married my wife and me. He told me a few jokes, we planned on Thanksgiving, and then two days later my wife called to say he’d committed suicide. There was no indication that it was coming.
Charlie was the guy you went to with your problems, he was the guy that always cheered you up. I got scared when Charlie killed himself because I had complete apathy about what he had done. I didn’t realize that subconsciously, I wanted to check out. I kept thinking about the peace and comfort that would come to me if I didn’t exist anymore. Why should I exist? I wasn’t a help to anybody. I’d already gotten everything I ever wanted. All I ever wanted to do was be an actor, all I ever wanted to do was be successful. Read More »
Tony Snow
February 21st, 2008
The first couple of weeks I was absolutely scared stiff. In the period between diagnosis and surgery, I was a wreck. But the funny thing is that once I got into surgery, and started chemo, it was like a sporting event. You’ve got something to do and at that point it was worse for family and friends than it was for me. They’re on the sidelines watching, and it’s scary because they don’t really know what’s going on. Once you’re engaged and doing the things you love and back into a normal daily round of activity, I think it gives you strength and you don’t spend a lot of time feeling sorry for yourself. There were a couple important things I did in battling cancer. One is that I decided not to be a hero. I actually announced on my radio program and told people to pray for me. I think a lot of times people think they can withdraw and thereafter, they lose the opportunity for friends and neighbors to do what comes naturally, which is to reach out and help and that is a really important part [of recovery]. Read More »
Montel Williams
February 21st, 2008
When the neurologist said the words - “You have MS,” it hit me like a brick. I thought the diagnosis was a death sentence. I’d heard of multiple sclerosis, but I didn’t really know what it was. I knew it meant excruciating pain and that eventually I could lose control of my body. I also knew there was no cure. That was enough to plunge me into the depths of despair. During the next two months, I experienced the lowest moments of my life. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. I became so despondent that I considered ending it all. Read More »
Coach Kay Yow
February 21st, 2008
My strength comes from my faith. And all of the organizations, the people that are raising money for research, give a lot of cancer patients hope because a new drug can be discovered anytime. I’m on drugs that were discovered in the 90s and 2000 — and they are extending my life. I think all of the qualities that are necessary to be a winner as a person, give you the opportunity to be a winner whether it’s on the court, or battling cancer, or in your job, or in relationships. Read More »
Sean Swarner
February 21st, 2008
Watch The Video
I am a two-time cancer survivor and living proof of triumph against all odds. At age 13, I was diagnosed with life-threatening Advanced Stage IV Hodgkin’s Disease. My prognosis was critical, and doctors did not expect me to live more than three months. Yet treatment after treatment, I improved. My family felt my turnaround was nothing short of a miracle - until the unimaginable happened. Two years later, at age 15, doctors found a cancerous tumor in my chest wall. It was Askin’s Sarcoma, another, entirely different and potentially fatal form of cancer. This time, doctors gave me only two weeks. Read More »
Mayte Prida
February 21st, 2008
Cancer is one of the greater tests that a human being can face. Almost everyone these days is touched by the disease — either personally or someone who they love. I understand. I know the emotions you feel because I have felt them too: incredulity, distress, desperation. Surviving cancer is not easy, but it is full of blessings if we decide to find them and are open to receive them. Read More »
Shirley Sobolewski
February 21st, 2008
In February of 2006 I lost my job, and as a result I also lost my health coverage. My first and foremost concern was my medications. I take 13 medications, mostly for severe diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease. My meds are what keep me alive. My private physician gave me samples to get me by, but I knew they wouldn’t last forever. So, I started cutting them in half to try to stretch the meds until a solution could be found. I began making phone call after phone call to numerous agencies, asking for help, but got nothing but denial. In the meantime, my health started to deteriorate. I also was seeing the Montel commercial for PPA on TV constantly, but I ignored it. I was totally convinced that NOBODY would give me medication for free without having some kind of gimmick attached…. Read More »
Raymond Strother
April 14th, 2008
“I really, really hate to tell you this,” is how it all began. Prostate cancer! Virulent prostate cancer! A bastard of a disease looking for other organs to attack.
My father died an agonizing death because he refused to be treated. My doctor, a wise and thoughtful man in Washington, D.C., told me that the same cancer that killed my father was likely to be in my future. We stepped up the schedule of my PSA tests. Every ninety days I drained a few centimeters of blood into a tiny glass vial as an investment in a future…ten minutes of my life for a painless and simple test my father refused. Cancer! My doctor was right but I was ready. I had already made my decision. I had too many books to write, too many grand children to teach fly fishing and tall story telling. I would fight. Read More »
Mollie Fennell Hillyer
October 11th, 2007
Mine is a story of second chances. In 2002, after a divorce, I moved back to New Orleans. I was lucky enough to start seeing a man whom I had dated back in 1985. On June 11, 2005, I married this wonderful man. We started our married life in Pass Christian, MS. Two months later Katrina came rushing towards us and we evacuated to Mobile, AL, where my husband’s son lived. We lost everything. We were blessed that we did not lose any friends or family.
We spent months going back and forth to Pass Christian trying to salvage things. I had not been feeling well for awhile. Our first year anniversary was on June 11, 2006, but I was too ill to celebrate. A few days later I was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. It was then when I was diagnosed with stage 4 non-small-cell lung cancer. The tumors were in both lungs. One was the size of an orange. I had 12 tumors throughout my liver. I had only a few months to live. Read More »
Laurie Wheeler-Snyder
March 14th, 2008
I am writing regarding how you have inspired me to take action with my own health. You have given me hope that in the future, prescription drugs will remain available for the uninsured. Furthermore, it is with new technology and research that we’re finding more medicines to help people like me overcome disease.
I became a survivor of heart disease on January 5, 1965. I was born on February 10, 1963. Heart disease did not stop me from being an athlete, graduating from college in 3 1/2 years, with a degree in Marketing, and a minor in education. I am an open-heart surgery survivor from the 60’s and after having my children, I suffered from a TIA and a stroke. To look at me on the outside you would never know I have ever had a problem. When the TIA’s were first diagnosed in 1994 the doctors told me I probably had Multiple Sclerosis. The shock of this diagnosis was furthered by the stress and painful process of looking for answers as to what was going on with my body. This stress continued until I had a stroke in 1997. I am one of the first generations of women having children who had open-heart surgery. Read More »
Fergie Ferguson
November 2nd, 2007
A little over a year ago I was diagnosed with HIV. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The virus weakens a person’s immune system and their ability to fight infections. Unlike when HIV and AIDS first came on the scene in the 1980s, today, because of innovations in prescription medicines, many people living with HIV are able to take medicines to stave off full-blown AIDS and to help them cope with HIV and its affects so that they can live longer lives. However, when I was diagnosed, I felt like I had hit rock bottom. I was working, but wasn’t making much money and I didn’t have any insurance to help me get the prescription medicines I needed to fight this deadly illness. I decided that I needed to make a plan to get healthy again and turn my life around. Read More »
Amy Wall
March 10th, 2008
I remember very clearly, it was Thanksgiving 1999 at my grandparents’ house when I first noticed my toes were numb. Over the next month, that numbness took over my right leg and crept into my left leg too. Looking back, I should have also noticed that I was tired all the time, losing my balance and misspeaking or jumbling my words – at the time I thought I was just tired and stressed from working two jobs. I would never have predicted that these seemingly unrelated symptoms would lead to almost a year of tests and a final diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
When I was diagnosed, I knew almost nothing about MS. My neurologist at the time told me that I would in all likelihood wind up in a wheelchair like Annette Funicello, not something a 25-year old wants to hear! I had five-year plans, ten-year plans, places to go, things I wanted to see and do – I did not want to be limited by a chronic illness that is hardly understood in the medical community, much less by employers, family members and friends. Read More »
Dean Kuni
October 18th, 2007
April 4, 2005, is a day I will never forget. This was the day I thought life was over. This was the day I thought would be the last for me to kiss my wife and hug my two wonderful children. This was the day I learned I had a Type III dissecting aortic aneurysm and was told that although I didn’t die at that very moment, 50 percent of people having this kind of an aneurysm die within 48 hours. This I thought was my death sentence. After all, comedian and actor John Ritter had died nearly two years earlier of the same thing. However, because of miracles in healthcare, my doctors were able to stabilize my condition with medicines and other treatments. These blessings offered me a second chance to continue to live my life, and because of this amazing miracle, my priorities in life have really changed. Read More »
Linda Allison
April 22nd, 2008
Ten years ago, my blood pressure skyrocketed, and I was diagnosed with Raynaud’s Syndrome. Although I wasn’t working at the time, the symptoms of Raynaud’s Disease are devastating - even for a relatively sedentary lifestyle. There are lots of chest pains (angina), throbbing in my extremities, and my hands and toes turned purple and black when I was under stress or out in the cold. This is caused by a decrease in the blood that is circulated because of clogged arteries. The throbbing can be excruciating at different times. In addition, depression was dominant for me because I felt so ill. Read More »
