Hope and Change: Cancer Survivor

I started this week out with the story of my father, of all the people who story has been told in the posts this week he was the only one not alive. Today I am writing a story about a man who I have met in person only a few times. He currently is the ambassador of fun at the Texas Harley Davidson dealer in Bedford Texas. Of all the people that I’ve shared with you this week, this is the biggest story of hope I know.

Here are a few words from Terry Purdom:

Hope! What a powerful little word. We use it everyday in our lives, we hope for this or we hope for that. Hope is how I deal with living with cancer. I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in November of 2004. Multiple Myeloma is a cancer in my bone-marrow, at the present time it is an incurable cancer. When I was first diagnosed I thought at the most I maybe had about three years to live. That was six years ago. I am taking a drug today that was not even available to me just six years ago, that’s what I call hope. Hope is also knowing that a new drug is just around the corner. Hope is what pulls us out of those valleys that we stumble into now and then. Hope Elevated is my message. We have to keep our hope elevated. I can’t afford for that hope to fall off into that valley with me. If I do, there is nothing there to pull me up.

Hope is a weapon! I feel that hope is my greatest weapon in my fight with cancer. I try and help others fight cancer with the power of hope. I also have to understand that the hope that I have today may fail me. The treatments may fail me, but there is one hope that will never fail me, and that is the hope that comes from my faith in God. My hope stands on the promises of God. Hope Elevated!

Terry tells how this is an incurable cancer, yet with a medication and hope he is able to still be here. When I got the chance to talk with him recently, I asked the question what was his biggest challenge? He thought about that and told me it was not his cancer that was a challenge, but getting his message out. A simple message of hope. That is “never giving up”.

When I think about that being the hardest thing to get out is a message of hope being harder to get out then going through then cancer. That tells me that terry is just like my dad, I know people who have battled cancer, their prayers to find a cure. Yet that was not a challenge. Hope is our greatest weapon Terry says, imagine all the people who could do things with their life if hope carried them through the minor things like cancer.

That is what this week is about hope and Change. I have to admit the two people that gave me the idea to start this week was, terry’s story, and my dad’s. To think some of the toughest challenges that so many people face. These two men had some of them, yet they do not count them as a tough time in their life. It moved me about how much the message of hope needs to be spread. To have Terry tell me that it’s the hardest thing to spread his message, well that moved me to want to spread the message of hope even more.

Last year Terry took a great motorcycle ride, Harleys is something we have in common. It was a ride for a cure, to spread his message of hope. His trip can be viewed at his website and facebook page. The excited thing he recently told me how he was excited to go to AZ to speak. Sharing his message is now his life passion. Like Rob early in the week I am going to ask you to go to his web site and purchase one of his coins. Each coin he sells helps raise money for his cause. Also if you have a group where Terry can speak, to share his simple message of hope,im going to ask you to contact him thru the same web page.

I choose to tell terry’s story, because just like my dad he said it was not his toughest challenge. So what I would like to do, if you go to any one of the places to connect with Terry, help him spread his message of Hope Elevated. His website is terrysbigadventure.com. You can also see his facebook page with the same name terry’s big adventure. But I’m going to say one more if you know of anywhere Terry can speak in your town, to share his message of hope. Contact him thru his page.

If you get a chance to give someone something, give them hope. That is the greatest gift you can give anyone. As Terry says on his website “Never Give up”.

My wish this week is that you have gained hope in your life. That you now go make changes to better your life. As you face each challenge no matter how small or large you have hope for a better tomorrow. For once we have hope then we can start over after anything hits us. Do not rely on someone else to give you hope, it’s not a government job, or your preacher, or even my job to give you hope. We tell you about hope it’s you who actually reaches for hope and makes it real In your life.

I’m Tim Gillette the Rocker Life Coach, showing you hope to live the life you always wanted, love what you are doing while your hear, change your world to become the RockStar in your world.

Resources to Find Terry :