Surviving cancer makes for celebration

Irish John Gore hosting a recent party

A cancer survivor looks at

National Cancer Survivors Day

By Irish John Gore

Special to the T.O.A.

Last Saturday was Cancer Survivors Day nationwide, and more than 400 survivors showed up at the Wellness Community in Thousand Oaks to celebrate. They listened to music by the band, California Dreaming, ate heartily from a menu of tri-tip and chicken with all the trimmings provided by the Kiwanis Club of Thousand Oaks, but most of all, they celebrated life.

Laughter, hugs, visiting, as well as a few tears of joy set the scene. I felt very much at home among the crowd. You see, I’m a cancer survivor.

First heard about the Big C in our family back in August of 1987. A great doctor in Thousand Oaks, Dr. Richard Nichols, had been working with me for a long time on problems I had experienced when riding a bike.

I would ride my bike 40 or 50 miles in the afternoon. On arriving home, I would throw the bike in the driveway and rush to the bathroom. However, even though all the symptoms were there, I couldn’t go.

Many tests later, the good doctor found six cancerous tumors on my bladder.

You always remember the first time you are diagnosed with cancer. Dr. Nichols related the procedures that needed to be done, including surgery and six weeks of chemotherapy. He then asked if I had any questions. I said, "Yes, I have a 100-mile bike ride coming up for diabetes in six weeks. Will I be able to ride?"

He left the table where I lay and headed to the door. I figured, what kind of a stupid question was that? At the door, he turned and pointed. "Yes, my friend, you will do your bike ride."

That was all I needed to hear. Of course, the doctor asked another question, and my answer equally startled him.

"How long have you smoked, Irish?" he said. I told him I had never smoked in my whole life.

He then asked if I had ever been in a smoking environment. Of course, I said, in a six-foot by six-foot living room in Ireland with my father, uncles and neighbors all smoking.

"Then you were smoking, my friend," he said, proving the peril of secondhand smoke. Last year, 54,000 cancer victims died in the U.S. from second-hand smoke.

I did do my bike ride. And, yes, I was able to ride over 112 miles and raise $15,700 for diabetes. And there were no after effects from the chemo.

However, one year later to the day, the cancer was back. Again, Dr. Nichols leaped all over it and with new and better chemotherapy. I was soon in that beautiful R word: remission. Sixteen years later, with a yearly test that is both painful and fact-finding, the remission continues.

During all these years, and especially in the early years of my cancer, two groups paid a big part in my recovery. First there were the magnificent people at the Wellness Community. Second, I joined the board of the wonderful Hospice of the Conejo.

The Wellness Community has programs for cancers of all shapes and sizes. Three or four times a year they have a joke night. It is impossible to sit among these cancer victims and not feel exhilarated.

Much material for my many emceeing gigs comes from these sessions. Indeed, way back on the night of the O.J. Simpson slow freeway chase, we all missed it. We were telling jokes and laughing at cancer at the Wellness Community.

As an 8-year member of the Hospice board, I have watched the brilliant volunteers handle impending bereavement and its after effects with heartfelt volunteerism. Executive Director Ed Troupe and his band of helpers and staff are the greatest. I know; I have seen them at work up close.

So, back to Saturday’s celebrations.

Marty Nason, Wellness Community program director, was all over the place. Tables were set up and decorated, sign-ins were in full swing, and laughter and smiling faces were the only qualifications for attendance.

Swede Larson, of the Thousand Oaks Kiwanis Club, and himself a cancer survivor, led the way at the cooking area and by 12:30 p.m. the aroma of meat and chicken could be smelled three blocks away. Twenty-seven Kiwanians, aided by Hospice and Soroptimist volunteers, served both the grill and the service line.

Big John Thorson, of Trader Joe’s, arrived with a truckload of cool water and soft drinks, and by 1 p.m. the line was long and curling. It didn’t cease for two hours.

Keith Gregory, secretary of the Wellness Board, was master of ceremonies. He introduced Ken Kossoff, chairman of the board, and he also had happy words for all the survivors. Gail Crawford, a cancer survivor, gave a little testament of her trials and tribulations and bought about lots of humor and just a few, wee tears.

Marty Nason paid tribute to the Kiwanis Club, Trader Joe’s and all her staff and volunteers. "Each year, the event gets better," she said. "The help we get is second to none."

In answer to another question, she said that the Wellness Community handles more than 1,500 patients each week. "Five hundred of them are at our satellites in the valley, and over a thousand show up here in Westlake."

If you know someone who has cancer don’t be afraid to talk with him or her. It’s OK to ask about the type of cancer and the treatment they are undergoing. They will talk with you in the most positive of ways. And, as well, they will make you smile.

Finally, back in 1987, I had just finished two weeks of chemo and was celebrating my 51st birthday at a black-tie dinner at the Hyatt, Westlake. As the champagne was poured, wife Sue proposed a toast. "Here’s to the best-looking guy, wearing a tuxedo and with cancer," she said.

What a wonderful attitude she chose. Cancer today, with great strides being made for a cure, is still 80 percent attitude between living and dying.

God bless the survivors.