 I was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in August of 2016 because it's one of the cancers that you're not really aware of that you have it. It can be very silent, so I was living a normal life in bliss and ignorance. Doors opened up very quickly to get my cancer taken care of. I learned first about the John Thur cancer center because the first option that I looked at as far as treatment goes was surgery and I wanted to do it robotically. Robotic is the one that has the quickest recovery time, the least invasive. And Dr. Michael Stiefelman is one of the best robotic surgeons as far as prostate cancer goes. I was very surprised and very blessed to be able to get an appointment with him. What we always try to do here whenever possible is to see our patients as quickly as possible. We do have someone from the team, if not myself, reach out to them and let them know that we're getting all the information that's needed we're assembling the team so when they come here they understand that they're going to be well taken care of and I think that's a big part of healing is giving people support and hope. At the John Thur Cancer Center from the very beginning they know that we'll be there for them to help them and to support them. It's not always easy to come through a cancer treatment. Certainly in my role I can provide that psychosocial support as well as any medical support they may need. We knew going in that this is not a cancer that we would be able to follow. This was a cancer that needed to get treated and one of the reasons we sort of steered Mark into surgery is the opportunity to cure him one time and one time only. Especially with prostate cancer there's a thinking these days that it can be monitored but I'm only 58 years old. I didn't want it to be monitored for the next 15 years and then find out when I'm 75 that it's spread to the rest of my body so I wanted to have it out. If the surgery for whatever reason did not completely eradicate the disease we were able to bring in radiation as a secondary option and I think that was a big push for us to do the surgery first. And it turns out Mark did super from the surgery from a functional standpoint he did great everything came back quickly from a... You did a super job. Well it's always a team approach and people say that all the time to me it's like you did a great job and what I tell them is I'm just one small cog in the wheel. Having cancer is a very scary thing and the way that people treat you here make me feel at ease and really made the whole experience that much easier to go through. What's different about the John Thor cancer center is experience and the skill of the physicians the excellence and care that the nurses provide patients will freely tell you that they will recommend the John Thor cancer center so patient satisfaction is very high. Being able to be cancer free now thanks to the people at the John Thor cancer center I can look forward to playing for many more years to come and I don't have to give that up you know it's something that allows me to be who I am. I am Mark, husband, a father, a musician and a cancer survivor.