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A Blog of Personal Stories of Miracles and Hope

Tony Snow

Thursday, February 21, 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]...

The second important thing I did was that, yeah, I wanted to work. I didn't want to sit around and let my imagination run away. As you may already know, every cancer patient has gone through these moments where you feel a little tweak or twinge and all the sudden you're convinced that the cancer has sort of put on its track shoes and run all over your body." "You're able to discard all the things that don't matter [when diagnosed], and focus on the things that do matter. You remember what life's blessings are. As you may already know, all the things that are wonderful become more intensely wonderful. And the things you love you love immensely. And so you get a kind of joy and appreciation of the little things. There is a choice to be made – and that choice is whether you engage, or whether you let fear govern your life. A lot of times people allow their fears to dictate their lives and they kill themselves. But if you allow love, faith, joy, and determination to enter in you really increase your chances of winning. Each and every person I talked to [who had also been diagnosed with cancer], shared the same theme – that attitude and faith mean a whole lot, and if you get your head screwed on right you can help yourself. And that makes it easier for others to support you, as well.

I have cancer, but I don't know how long I'll have it. We're in an age of medical miracles. I'm doing chemotherapy even now, and I take pills five days a week and an infusion once every three weeks, and that's just maintenance. Maintenance because the treatment is designed to hold the cancer still, so it doesn't grow. The point is there comes a time to realize you've got a lot of people pulling for you, and that's not just people praying. I mean researchers, too. Researchers have this incredible ambition, and that is to save lives on a grand scale. And man, I want to do everything I can to help them; I have a vested interest here! They're a resource upon which we not only rely, we depend on. We're all waiting around for the next medical miracle, but the fact is, the cavalry is on the way. Tony Snow is the former White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush, and was a national broadcaster and journalist before becoming the the host of Fox News Sunday, Weekend Live. Today, Tony is a regular personality on Fox News Channel.