Montel Williams
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Getting my initial multiple sclerosis diagnosis took years. In fact, we’ve just recently been able to diagnose this disease relatively quickly. Back when I should have been diagnosed, they weren’t diagnosing anybody. But every couple of months, I’d go to the doctor and say, “There’s something really weird going on and I can’t figure it out.” And the doctor would tell me to stop lifting weights and I’d be okay.
I repeated this over and over again while I was still in the military. I left the military and started the talk show, and this scenario kept repeating. Finally, I went to one doctor who took one look at me and said, almost matter of factly, “I’ve got to tell you, this looks like MS. I can’t tell you without the test, but I think you have MS.” Read More »
Mark Spitz
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Winning my first gold medal as an individual – the 200-meter butterfly in Munich – was my most memorable Olympic moment. I’d worked so hard from, supposedly, my lack of success from the games the time before, that I knew I didn’t have to second guess whether I trained enough, whether I rested enough, or whether or not I was healthy. It was all systems go. Every day after that was a build up to winning the 7 gold medals. So, it was winning my first individual gold medal, and the journey that I took over those 8 days in Munich, that were my most memorable Olympic moments.
About 20 years ago, when I was 38, I discovered that I had high cholesterol. My mother had high cholesterol, but she didn’t do anything about it, and most people didn’t understand that having high cholesterol was one of the leading causes of cardiac disease, which is a major cause of heart attacks. Read More »
Bruce Jenner
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There were so many great moments during my Olympic journey. First, making it on the team in 1972…coming out of absolutely nowhere…was the biggest thrill of my life. Four years later, in 1976, it was a totally different deal. When I broke the world record for the decathlon in Munich, I was the most satisfied person in the world because I just accomplished everything in my sport that I could possibly accomplish. And not too many athletes can walk away from their career feeling that way.
As a youngster I had attention deficit disorder, and dyslexia. And it was very difficult as a young kid. We put so much pressure on young people to perform in school, to read well, and get good grades. That wasn’t happening for me. I failed 2nd grade, and I suffered from terrible low self-esteem. I thought all of the kids were smarter than me, better readers. My biggest fear was to go to school as a young kid because I was afraid that the teacher was going to ask me to read in front of the class. Read More »
Greg Louganis
When I was first diagnosed in 1988, the same year as the Seoul Summer Olympics, HIV was thought of as a death sentence, so I was going to do the honorable thing and go back home, lock myself in my house and wait to die. Because that was the mentality during that time. And then my cousin – who was my doctor and who did the HIV test – he really encouraged me to stay in training. He said that was probably the healthiest thing for me to do for myself. And I was very thankful for that, because I was able to focus on my diving, which was very positive, rather than on this cloud that potentially loomed over my head. Secrets are devastating, they can really isolate you, and that’s what happened with all of these secrets about my sexuality, and also about treatment, about my illness, about HIV.
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Deborah Gibson
All of my older sisters were taking piano lessons and singing, and I got my start basically by bugging my parents at age four. They kept telling me I was too young, and that maybe I should wait until I was six or seven. But eventually they gave in when they saw I was learning songs by ear.
From age five through sixteen I started doing a ton of theater, which led to voiceovers. That led to my fascination with recording studios, and suddenly I was composing and arranging the music in my head. At age 12, my mom came home from work to find me with my sister’s tape recorders lined up on the ironing board with my little synthesizer. I was doing my own version of multi-track recording, layering all the parts of the music while I played each part back.
When my mom saw that, she took out a loan and set up a recording studio for me in our house, where I worked on my own music for four years. By the time I arrived at Atlantic Records, I already had 100 finished demos and original songs. They couldn’t believe it. But I knew music! I knew how I wanted my music to sound. It was a matter of convincing them that I knew it – obviously the best way to do that is to have a number one hit! But being the youngest person ever to write, produce, and sing a number one hit song brought a lot of pressure. Read More »
Jerry Mathers
Having diabetes came as a big shock to me. When I finished “Leave it to Beaver”, I went to a regular high school. I did a little acting…Lassie, My Three Sons…but I pretty much withdrew from the acting profession. I came back to it later in life, and appeared on a new show called “The New Leave it to Beaver” which I did for 10 years…102 episodes…and those were long hours. I had a fairly young family at the time, two daughters and a son. And, I’d be away from the house for 12-14 hours a day. So when I finished that show I said…”You know, I’m gonna retire now, this is the good life.” I started eating way too much, and not doing a lot of exercise. I put on about 45 or 50 pounds. When I was getting ready to turn 50, a good friend who is a doctor cajoled me into get checked. I finally went in, and she asked me if I wanted to see my kids get married and hold my grandbabies. I said…of course! That’s when she told me that if I didn’t do something about my high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, I’d be dead in three to five years. Read More »
Joey Pantoliano
I was making my latest movie, Canvas, where I play the husband of a woman with schizophrenia. My research, and the experience of making the film, got me thinking about myself.
Several days before we started shooting, I talked to a friend of mine, Charlie, who actually married my wife and me. He told me a few jokes, we planned on Thanksgiving, and then two days later my wife called to say he’d committed suicide. There was no indication that it was coming.
Charlie was the guy you went to with your problems, he was the guy that always cheered you up. I got scared when Charlie killed himself because I had complete apathy about what he had done. I didn’t realize that subconsciously, I wanted to check out. I kept thinking about the peace and comfort that would come to me if I didn’t exist anymore. Why should I exist? I wasn’t a help to anybody. I’d already gotten everything I ever wanted. All I ever wanted to do was be an actor, all I ever wanted to do was be successful. Read More »
Tony Snow
We at Sharing Miracles would like to express our deepest sympathy to Tony Snow’s family. Tony inspired millions of people with his positive attitude and love of life. His passing was a tremendous loss to everyone who knew him, and a sad reminder that cancer is still a formidable foe.
The first couple of weeks I was absolutely scared stiff. In the period between diagnosis and surgery, I was a wreck. But the funny thing is that once I got into surgery, and started chemo, it was like a sporting event. You’ve got something to do and at that point it was worse for family and friends than it was for me. They’re on the sidelines watching, and it’s scary because they don’t really know what’s going on. Once you’re engaged and doing the things you love and back into a normal daily round of activity, I think it gives you strength and you don’t spend a lot of time feeling sorry for yourself. There were a couple important things I did in battling cancer. One is that I decided not to be a hero. I actually announced on my radio program and told people to pray for me. I think a lot of times people think they can withdraw and thereafter, they lose the opportunity for friends and neighbors to do what comes naturally, which is to reach out and help and that is a really important part [of recovery]. Read More »
Coach Kay Yow
My strength comes from my faith. And all of the organizations, the people that are raising money for research, give a lot of cancer patients hope because a new drug can be discovered anytime. I’m on drugs that were discovered in the 90s and 2000 — and they are extending my life. I think all of the qualities that are necessary to be a winner as a person, give you the opportunity to be a winner whether it’s on the court, or battling cancer, or in your job, or in relationships. Read More »
Sean Swarner
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I am a two-time cancer survivor and living proof of triumph against all odds. At age 13, I was diagnosed with life-threatening Advanced Stage IV Hodgkin’s Disease. My prognosis was critical, and doctors did not expect me to live more than three months. Yet treatment after treatment, I improved. My family felt my turnaround was nothing short of a miracle - until the unimaginable happened. Two years later, at age 15, doctors found a cancerous tumor in my chest wall. It was Askin’s Sarcoma, another, entirely different and potentially fatal form of cancer. This time, doctors gave me only two weeks. Read More »
Mayte Prida
Cancer is one of the greater tests that a human being can face. Almost everyone these days is touched by the disease — either personally or someone who they love. I understand. I know the emotions you feel because I have felt them too: incredulity, distress, desperation. Surviving cancer is not easy, but it is full of blessings if we decide to find them and are open to receive them. Read More »
Tony Blankley
The symptoms first began one Friday evening as I was sitting in the make-up chair preparing for a live television interview on MSNBC. I noticed one side of my mouth was drooping a little, but we were minutes away from a live broadcast into millions of homes so I decided to ignore it. But then I reached a point when I couldn’t ignore it any longer – in the middle of my hour-long interview, the entire side of my face had gone slack and I was drooling on live, national TV. Off the air, the host asked me if I needed an ambulance. I finished the hour-long show and quickly went home. I don’t consider myself a hypochondriac, but I knew something had gone terribly wrong. Read More »
Shirley Sobolewski
In February of 2006 I lost my job, and as a result I also lost my health coverage. My first and foremost concern was my medications. I take 13 medications, mostly for severe diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease. My meds are what keep me alive. My private physician gave me samples to get me by, but I knew they wouldn’t last forever. So, I started cutting them in half to try to stretch the meds until a solution could be found. I began making phone call after phone call to numerous agencies, asking for help, but got nothing but denial. In the meantime, my health started to deteriorate. I also was seeing the Montel commercial for PPA on TV constantly, but I ignored it. I was totally convinced that NOBODY would give me medication without having some kind of gimmick attached…. Read More »
Raymond Strother
“I really, really hate to tell you this,” is how it all began. Prostate cancer! Virulent prostate cancer! A bastard of a disease looking for other organs to attack.
My father died an agonizing death because he refused to be treated. My doctor, a wise and thoughtful man in Washington, D.C., told me that the same cancer that killed my father was likely to be in my future. We stepped up the schedule of my PSA tests. Every ninety days I drained a few centimeters of blood into a tiny glass vial as an investment in a future…ten minutes of my life for a painless and simple test my father refused. Cancer! My doctor was right but I was ready. I had already made my decision. I had too many books to write, too many grand children to teach fly fishing and tall story telling. I would fight. Read More »
Mollie Fennell Hillyer
Mine is a story of second chances. In 2002, after a divorce, I moved back to New Orleans. I was lucky enough to start seeing a man whom I had dated back in 1985. On June 11, 2005, I married this wonderful man. We started our married life in Pass Christian, MS. Two months later Katrina came rushing towards us and we evacuated to Mobile, AL, where my husband’s son lived. We lost everything. We were blessed that we did not lose any friends or family.
We spent months going back and forth to Pass Christian trying to salvage things. I had not been feeling well for awhile. Our first year anniversary was on June 11, 2006, but I was too ill to celebrate. A few days later I was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. It was then when I was diagnosed with stage 4 non-small-cell lung cancer. The tumors were in both lungs. One was the size of an orange. I had 12 tumors throughout my liver. I had only a few months to live. Read More »
