By Pepper Parr
May 9, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
“I am still a stage 4 lung cancer patient” explains Casey Cosgrove, “but the trials I was on at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto have come to an end”
He now returns to the Juravinski hospital in Hamilton where his treatments will continue.
A really special team – Casey Cosgrove and his supporters. That tattoo on his right leg has been there s long it has to be refreshed – the colours are fading.
“I am not cured – but the cancer has been stopped and the cancer researchers now know a lot more about my cancer and the way it works in my body. The cancer was stopped but it is now growing, that’s why I have to start a new trial.”
“The immune drugs they have used sort of trick the cancer and send it in a different direction. It’s a little like a shell game that the drugs and the cancer play inside my body.”
Casey Cosgrove has been involved in a number of cancer treatment trial programs. Some have succeed in extending the life of a patient; in other situations the cancer has outsmarted the drug.
Casey is now sharing his story to raise awareness about lung cancer and new treatment options that offers the potential for a longer and higher quality of life.
Community support at its most precious. That team is more like an army.
Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer worldwide, claiming more lives every year than breast, prostate and colorectal cancer combined?
In 2015, it was estimated that 26,600 Canadians would be diagnosed with this disease. Despite these staggering statistics, advances in the treatment of lung cancer have progressed slowly.
Casey was diagnosed in 2010, – he lives his life day by day. He serves as a vice president of Lung Cancer Canada, is almost a feature in the annual Burlington Terry Fox run where his team – a large number of people who do the run to support Casey Cosgrove.
It’s a tight family that live life to the fullest – every day. Dad and daughter
His children understand the story of their Dad’s health but there is nothing morbid about the life the Cosgrove family lives. They have dogs – three of them. Casey teaches leadership at the University of Guelph, his wife Bryna works as a professor at Seneca College. Both sons plays excellent hockey; his daughter is currently doing some modelling. A normal family with network that is there for him every day of the year.
Casey can remember the day he saw Terry Fox on his run 35 years ago.
Sometime later Casey had a Terry Fox tattoo put on his lower right leg. That tattoo has been there so long explained Casey that I have to go in and get it refreshed – it has begun to fade.
Casey will tell you that there is hardly a kid in this city involved in sports that I haven’ at some time coached. Call him and he says yes to every request for help. But Casey is reluctant to take on any long term commitments – he has a hankering to get into public life – if he ran in his ward he would win by a very large margin. Being able to complete a long term task is an ongoing concern – so he works on smaller projects and enjoys life with his family.
The monument will be unveiled Sunday forenoon.
The day of our conversation at the end of the pier Casey mentioned he had had that end of life conversation with his oncologist; that was a number of years ago.
Some refer to Casey at the lung cancer poster boy. Casey will look you in the eye and tell you that he is a stage four lung cancer patient who has been treated for the past six years –and he leaves it at that.
Next Sunday afternoon he will be part of a group that unveils a monument – a marker of the spot that Terry Fox passed when he was doing his Marathon of Hope run 35 years ago.
