DEAR SEAN:

Just wanted to say we caught your show in Lake City, but I was not as into it as I wanted to be. Because, you see, a few days earlier, they did a scan and found lesions on my spine. It looks like cancer. I have tests scheduled.

I’m only 50. I have many things I still want and need to do. I’m scared but ready to fight. I want more years with my wife. I want to be there for my kids. My son is getting married in October. I’m not really sure why I emailed you other than to ask for your thoughts and prayers, and maybe a word of advice.

Anyway, I’ll wrap this up because I’m rambling now.

Thanks again Sean,
JOSH-IN-GEORGIA

DEAR JOSH:

First off, it’s okay to ramble. Secondly. I don’t give “advice” per se, because the best advice I have is: Don’t eat the yellow snow.

So anyway, I contacted several of my friends after I received your email and asked them for THEIR advice, which—trust me—will be better than mine.

People such as Rhonda, who has had cancer three times.

“I fought hard,” says Rhonda, of Hartford, Connecticut. “…And now I’m 53, cancer free, and I still bike, jog, and swim every day. Cancer has not stopped me yet. I have many friends who have survived cancer.

“Start searching out the stories of how many people have defeated cancer. It will blow your mind.”

The doctor found cancer in Jace’s (49) abdomen. He went through multiple treatments, and he is now 14 years cancer free.

Jace has some outstanding advice: “My advice is not to write Sean Dietrich.”

I have a friend, Allen, in East Tennessee, who writes:

“Yeah, I’ve had cancer twice. I’ve done radiation, chemo, and all sorts of other weird experimental stuff I don’t recommend.

“It was a tough road, but last week we celebrated my son’s 50th birthday. Tell your friend I’m old enough to be his dad, and there are 18.1 million cancer survivors in the US.”

Eighteen million is more than half the population of Texas, by the way.

And then there’s Melissa. “I had cancer. Doctors looked me in the eye and said I would die. Two words: Prayer works.”

“I am a retired physician,” said Stewart, of Texas. “…I am a bone cancer survivor. Please tell your friend that the five-year relative survival rate for cancer, for ALL STAGES combined, is 77 percent. This is a huge number. I am proof that cancer is not the end.”

Charlene, from Huntsville, Alabama. “I have had cancer in six places on my body. It’s gone now because of the incredible advances of modern medicine and prayer.”

Andrew, from Baltimore: “My daughter has had breast cancer twice, and she survived it. Then I had cancer, and my daughter got me through it. We are both healthy today. Oh, and I’ll be 89 in June.”

And then there is the elderly man who I met in Georgia, after performing my one-man act to a room of snoring people. I don’t remember his name. I only met him once. But once was enough.

He said he had undergone cancer treatments seven times. Count them, seven.

He was a big man. Strapping. With white hair. Matinee-idol smile. His wife was with him. So were his three grandkids.

He shook my hand powerfully and said, “Once you overcome cancer, you aren’t afraid of anything anymore.”

Remember what I said about the yellow snow, Josh.