Friends and Family,

It may be too early for the Fourth of July, but all the right colors are there. I feel like some fireworks:

BLUE SKIES because I’m feeling great this far out from surgery, I have no physical limitations (freedom!), chemo has been incredibly easy for me, and there are no new scans to tell me things aren’t as good as I think. Yahhhhhh!

WHITE RIBBONS because last weekend our friend and fellow survivor Dawn Horner got our local support group together, along some with amazing family and friends. We spent a few hours making white ribbons to help spread lung cancer awareness. I’ll spare you the gushiness, but the spirit of the project and the togetherness seemed to leave all of us feeling warm and fuzzy.

People are putting these white ribbons on their houses, in their windows, in their clinics and doctor’s offices, and having their pictures taken in all sorts of interesting places, then posting the pics on social media with the hashtag #thewhiteribbonproject, like this:

If you want to know more, see https://www.facebook.com/TheWhiteRibbonProject. If you live near me and want a ribbon, let me know and I’ll get you as many as you want.

Finally, I wanted to post about RED ROSES. These are in gratitude to my wife Genevieve for all that she has been through with me in the past year. Genevieve, thank you for being there for me when I dropped down to 138 pounds and you had to wheel me around the hospital because I couldn’t breathe enough to walk. And also for the endless days you spent sleeping on the sofa near me while I slept in a chair using oxygen, because there was too much fluid in my lungs to breathe lying down in bed. For patiently repeating things over and over when I was too stoned on pain meds to remember what you were saying. For (almost) never snapping back at me when I snapped at you out of frustration. And for surviving the trauma of watching your husband come so close to death. Most of all, thank you for giving me a reason to fight like hell to stay alive.

For all of this, and the countless other things you have done for me, I will always be grateful. Thank you, Genevieve!

This post originally appeared June 16, 2022, on Dann’s Cancer Chronicles. It is republished with permission.