“I grew up knowing I wanted to make money, and that was it. So I went to school to be an accountant, and I was like I don’t really care, I just want to move out, make some money. But after my Dad got diagnosed with cancer, it really made me think about my values, and my big value is family now. I changed my major, I want to be a grief counselor, to help cancer patients. That’s how it’s really affected my life. I’m going from a six figure job, to maybe only like 50,000 a year, but it makes me happy knowing I can help people like my father, and other people who don’t have that support system. Cancer’s affected me by giving me a positive outlook to help the community.”

“There was so much good that came from cancer. We would sit around the table at night after Marissa was diagnosed with cancer and talked about the good things that happened in our life because of cancer. Like the people that were amazing or the way that we saw generosity, just overflowing towards our family. It was amazing to see that generated towards you. People that you didn't know, did know forever, or people that were poor giving you their last amount of money because they thought that you might need it. It was just an amazing, incredible adventure.”

“I was forced to grow up earlier than I normally would have. When you were confronted with situation like that, it made you look at the situation from an adult prospective, rather than that of 12 year old boy. I did the only thing I could, which was to be there for my mom. You do gain a stronger appreciation for life, what it means to have a family when one of your family members got something like that. Be there for them and be there as much as you can. It would be really easy to deny that it is happening, to ignore the situation. But you can’t, the person suffering is going to need you. Even if you are young, you can still help and you can make it easier for the person going through it, and they are going to need you to do that.”

“Through different support group situations, it’s amazing how, once you have cancer, you start meeting people that have cancer. After having cancer in the family, you become aware that we’re a community, and we need to support each other. We need community. Our American culture tells us that we can be an island to ourselves, we’re strong, we can survive, we can do it on our own. I don’t believe that’s the way God intended us to be, and I don’t think that is a true statement. I think the truth is, we are weak. We are frail. We do struggle. In these kinds of times, we need each other. Be with your friends, be with your family.”

“When she got down to 86 pounds, I really thought she was going to die. But she didn’t. She went from being paralyzed from the waist down and having to be wheelchair bound, and having to catheterize herself, to now she runs regularly, and she got married last September. To me, it’s a miracle. Like I said, when I was in medical school, everyone died from Ewing Sarcoma. Nobody survived. That was a resurrection for me of my faith, and now there are routinely people that survive from Ewing sarcoma. As a physician, I realized that a lot of things have changed.”