The Great Adventure

The Great Adventure

Joshua

Due to my near death experience from my brain tumor diagnosis in 2005, I can now truly live.  I was diagnosed with a Mixed Oligoastrocytoma Grade 3 at age 30 and was given two weeks to live and was told I would be on disability the rest of my life by my doctor. Talk about a wake up call! Because of this I was forced to put my affairs in order and face the possible reality of my departure from this earth.

I am still alive today and loving life six years later. Getting my mental abilities back has not been easy and has been an uphill battle. Through retaining my mind after short term memory loss of four years and suffering from months of insomnia and fatigue I am now able to hold down a full time job and support my family of four.

I use supplementation to fight my brain cancer, and believe that our emotional health and physical health play a huge part in survivorship. All aspects of our person must be addressed because we are physical, emotional and spiritual beings. Medical science misses this and only treats us as physical beings.

I do not attribute my survival to anything I have done, but I have had plenty of help along the way. When I walked through my personal Valley of Death my caregivers have been my Lord Jesus Christ and my loving family every step of the way.

As survivors we have been given a new lease and appreciation for life. We are not our cancer we have been given a new identity. Because of the suffering we have been through we have come out as gold through fire. We are more than cancer survivors we are cancer conquers! I say this because the word survivor does not do us justice because it is just getting by—WE ARE TRULY ALIVE!

I am starting a Non Profit named 3Cords Project for cancer survivors and their caregivers to provide them with an outdoor retreat experience that will give them time to reassess their lives and escape their cancer diagnosis. There are three elements to surviving cancer: You and your disease, Your caregiver, and Hope. They must all be interlaced together to make a strong cord that cannot be broken.

Opinions expressed within this story belong solely to the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of the National Brain Tumor Society.