H.O.P.E. defined.
Yesterday: H — Humor.
Today: O — Opportunity to serve.
I didn’t tell anyone about my melanoma for about a year. In fact, I didn’t even miss a cartoon. I’d work for three hours and sleep for six. I was determined to keep everything inside and push forward like nothing had happened. But as I mentioned in the H part, I was falling apart inside. So one day, I wrote a column about my experience and how to detect a melanoma. Suddenly, my e-mail box filled with responses from people who said they were getting checked because they read my column.
The fourth doctor I went to found my melanoma. I was searching for a purpose for why I lived when so many didn’t.
It was at that moment, I found it. I was going to take the fight to the disease that had tried to kill me.
The Clarion-Ledger community room was full of cancer survivors. I had been named the Honorary Chairman for the American Cancer Society’s Hinds County Relay for life. As I stood there sipping my water, a fellow cancer survivor came up to me and said, “Thank God you just had skin cancer.” It was that moment I realized that most people didn’t realize how deadly melanoma really is. And with melanoma, early detection (and awareness is the key.)
Soon afterwards, my friend and coworker Keith Warren and I started Run from the Sun. It was an afternoon 5K race built around a free skin screening. I got busy getting on the radio and on the speaking circuit talking about sun safety.
I was given a blessing — the gift of life. I was doing everything I could to pay it forward.
Soon my fear began to fade like my scar.
One day I was driving down the interstate and tuned into a local sports radio program. I heard a caller talk about how he had heard my story and went to get checked. The doctor found a melanoma that had started to spread. But he had been treated and was cancer free. He told how he had a chance to see his son grow up because of my story.
I pulled over and cried.
I don’t know why I am here. Too many good people who had the same disease aren’t. But serving others is helping me find the reason. And although it’s not about me, I’m benefiting from it.
O is the opportunity to serve. It’s about paying your gifts forward.