Four years ago today I had an appointment with an ENT. I almost canceled the appointment because, I figured the problem would go away and there were other things that were more important for me to do. Yet something inside of me said to go and I am forever grateful I listened.
It was this day four years ago the tumor was found in my nasal cavity and palate- and the following week when I was diagnosed with cancer.
This day brings with it joy because I am still NED and get to be with my family. It brings gratitude for the breath in my lungs, for my family, friends and for all the people who were there beside us during our walk with cancer, and since.
Yet it brings something else that I hate to speak of but it’s my truth. It brings up fear. I read something soon after I was diagnosed that caused me to close my computer and no longer read any more about Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma.
The stat I read that day is that the survival rate for ACC is 40% at 15 years. I pray with all my heart and soul to be in that 40%, and I humbly ask, if you think of it, to also pray that I get to be too.
With most cancers, the further away you get from your treatment, the more in the clear you are. With ACC the reoccurrences happen further out from treatment. So as grateful I am to be four years out, there is also a fear I need to wrestle through today.
I know my story in written in God’s book and not found on Google. My head knows that yet the reality is I have had trouble erasing this stat from my memory. Most days I don’t think about it, yet it’s on my heart today.
Even so, I will choose to celebrate the gift of being here and these four years I’ve been given. Yet you may now understand why I stay so close to God in my days. I need His truth and wisdom to lead me, and not my own emotions. I need to trust what He says over Google. I need to let faith, not fear, rule my heart.
My hope each day is to live close to God so that every day I am given I live with purpose; loving others as He loves me. I pray that as time passes, my memory of this stat will pass too, and that there will be more funding and research to help find a cure for our ACC family.
To help put away the fear today I am going to live out love towards my ACC family. As a family we will continue our donations to ACCRF, Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation to help fund the research we need to find a cure for this rare cancer.
I wanted to reach out and ask if you would join me today in one of three ways to live out love towards our ACC family:
1. Donate to ACCRF at
2. To go to Amazon smile and choose ACCRF as the organization you donate to every time you purchase from Amazon smile
3. Do both
Our ACC family sincerely appreciates anything you are able to contribute towards finding a cure for ACC.
And before I go, I also want to add, that if you have been hesitating making an appointment, or have put your well being on the back burner, please remember that we don’t get two chances at this one life we’ve been given. Please make that wellness checkup for yourself today to be sure all is well
With love and hope,
Shawn
PS To hear more of my story watch video with my dear friend Melissa Cole at HERE
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” - Philippians 4:13