ONCO Cancer Survivor Story

ONCO > ONCO Cancer Survivor Story

In continuation of our National Cancer Survivors Month recognition, we’re focusing on Brad Kirby, VP of Professional Services and Navigation Systems.

My cancer experience:

While I don’t have any personal experience with cancer, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was four years old. I wasn’t old enough to truly appreciate the situation, the fear, and the concern my parents must have had at the time. With a 14-year-old, a 4-year-old, and growing responsibilities at work – it had to be extremely stressful. It was found on a screening mammogram, and it was early enough that she avoided chemotherapy – certainly a testament to routine screenings. Fast forward to my teen years and my aunt was also diagnosed with breast cancer. My aunt and I had grown close and while it was a large tumor with lymph node involvement, I was confident her experience would be like my moms with everything turning out ok. Unfortunately, it eventually metastasized. My aunt fought the good fight.  She lived 7 years with metastatic breast cancer, and I’ve never been around someone that was so positive despite the circumstances. Her battle was throughout my college years and helped to drive me to want to be part of the solution. After working in the oncology field for a good while, my mom had a second scare when she was diagnosed with DCIS and LCIS in 2009. I was there for this part of her journey as we met with the patient navigator together and it was a much more supportive and educational experience than her diagnosis in the early 80s and I’m very glad to say the doctors took great care of her and she’s doing well today. 

How has this affected my life and career?

I found that my aunt’s experience affected me at a key time when I was trying to make decisions on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. While I was pursuing a MPH in graduate school, I applied for a position as a cancer registrar as I thought it would overlap well with the public health education. Little did I know that it would become the career I was looking for. From 2002 to now, I have been lucky enough to be able to affect change in the cancer community through a variety of ways whether it be providing high quality data as a registrar, helping to launch a CT lung screening program to catch lung cancer early, or to grow a standardized navigation program across a health system to increase the support cancer patients are provided. And when I really think about it, all the work I’ve done in my career was fueled by mom’s journey and encouragement from above from my Aunt Pat. 

What do I have to say to other cancer survivors for National Cancer Survivors Month?

For everyone – keep getting your screenings. It may seem like another thing to do in an already busy day, week, or month but it could save your life. My mom is a testament to that. When you can, educate others on screenings – mammograms, colonoscopies, CT lung screenings for high-risk smokers, prostate screenings. And most importantly, tell your family and friends you love them often. For those of you that are survivors, we cannot tell you enough how much we respect your fight and your ability to work through one of life’s toughest obstacles. Stay strong and we love you.