Editor’s note: This is the next feature story in a series highlighting Cherokee County Relay for Life’s cancer survivors, their struggle and triumphs against the disease and why they support Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society. Keep watching Monday’s editions of the Daily Progress through March to learn more about your neighbors and how you can help fight all forms of cancer.
By Cristin Ross
cross@jacksonvilleprogress.com
When Jacksonville minister Philip Strong remembers his fight against T-cell lymphoma cancer, he doesn’t get sentimental or emotional. In fact, he looks at his whole ordeal as just another part of life.
“I trust God that everything will work out all right, whatever happens to me,” he said with a serene smile. “I never felt sorry for myself. Why me? Why not me? I’ve been preaching since I was 20, so maybe I’ve got a little different perspective than most. We all deserve to die for our sins and I figure cancer’s better than a cross.”
Strong remembered he’d contracted some kind of stomach virus in February 2004, but it was when he started noticing his feet were always cold, he became concerned.
“It just didn’t feel right,” he recalled. “And then I started losing feeling in my right side — like everything had gone to sleep almost — that’s when I knew something was definitely wrong.”
Strong was hospitalized in March after he began having back and hip pain, and developed a fever that wouldn’t diminish. Doctors at first thought Strong has viral meningitis, but it was when Dr. Sessions in Jacksonville did a bone scan that they found the culprit.
According to the Web site, www.lymphomation.org, T-cells or NK cells are a family of cells that normally protect a body from disease, such as by eliminating those cells that are infected with virus.
“Lymphomas result when DNA damage or changes occurs to an immune cell (a lymphocyte) that alters the behavior of the cells,” the site states. “The damage to DNA results in the abnormal production of proteins that prevents the cells from dying when they should, or causes sustained rapid cell division that produces more of its kind. These malignant cells then may accumulate to form tumors in areas where the normal counterparts of the cell type reside — lymph nodes, skin, mucosal linings, etc.”
Four major types of T cell lymphoma are peripheral T cell lymphoma, T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, cutaneous T cell lymphoma, and adult T cell lymphoma.
“(The cancer) was in both hips, my pelvis and around my spinal cord, which was the reason I was having problems with my legs,” Strong said, and added that by this time he was using a cane to get around. “It went up my back, my ribcage and onto my shoulder blades.”
Further tests revealed the cancer had matasticized to Strong’s bones and muscles and by mid-May, he was back in the hospital again and, he admitted, in intense pain.
“I was beginning to realize I might not live through this,” he recalled, voice somber but unwavering. “It had progressed really quickly and I when started chemo, they hit it pretty hard.”
Hard enough, Strong said, that after six sessions he decided he wouldn’t continue, though he was scheduled for eight sessions.
“I lost six layers of skin on my fingertips through the chemo,” he said. “I threw up for 45 minutes, every day of chemo — there’s no doubt it was rough.
“And after six sessions, there was no change. It continued to go into remission, thankfully, and this May, I’ll still be clean after five years.”
Strong said the chances of his cancer coming back after five years are the same as any other person would have of developing the disease.
“I still have lingering effects,” Strong confessed. “Rheumatoid arthritis and a couple herniated discs. Fortunately at the time, I was 39 and in very good shape. I wouldn’t have been strong enough to get through the chemo if I hadn’t been.”
Strong said his family, wife Donna and sons, were a huge help in getting him through the toughest parts of his recovery.
Ironically, Strong was diagnosed the day of the 2004 Relay for Life event — one he’d been planning on participating in. Since his recovery, he’s walked as a survivor for the Relay.
“The outpourings of support and prayers from everyone, not just through the Relay, really touchesr me. We got a $170 donate from Donna’s coworkers when I was still pretty sick — that just tore me up.”
Strong admitted he didn’t know if he’d be able to participate in this year’s Relay, but said even if he couldn’t make it, everyone there would have his prayers.
“I’m very moved by the whole event,” he said. “It’s takes a large emotional toll.”
To volunteer to help organize the 2009 Cherokee County Relay For Life, contact Chair Cynthia Kline by e-mail cherokeerelayforlife@yahoo.com or by phone, 903-683-7483 or 903-795-3604.
The Relay begins at 7 p.m. Friday, April 24 and continues through the night to 7 a.m. Saturday, April 25, at Mauldin Field at the Jacksonville High School.
This year’s theme is “Music inspires us, memories sustain us, and the fight against cancer unites us.”
