Author: Leslie Toldo
When John Manchester walked into the waiting room at the McLaren Proton Therapy Center after an appointment, he found his wife, Terese, in a lively conversation with strangers. They were men whom he had seen in that very same room while he waited for previous treatments.
“Usually, all of us men sat quietly in different corners of that very large waiting room, without speaking,” John said. “But, as is often the case, Terese, who is an extrovert, managed to get a conversation going.”
In fact, in the weeks since John had started getting proton therapy, Terese got to know quite a bit about these other men in the waiting room. She found out they all had something life-changing in common with John- prostate cancer.
“Terese would talk to me in the waiting room. I would come in for treatment and she was so talkative and outgoing,” remembers one of those one-time strangers, Bill Nelson. “She is a real force of nature.”
A force strong enough to break the ice and get these men talking about their shared battle and how they were getting through. As new men started treatment, the group grew.
“The conversations began to expand. I started arriving earlier, so that we would have more overlap time,” said another of the men, Dave Kummer. “Sometimes I would stop after my appointment to talk some more. We asked each other how it was going and shared knowledge.”
The men discussed helpful books about prostate cancer and shared how they ended up having proton therapy to treat their cancer.
“I did a lot of research,” John said. “I learned that proton therapy came with less risk of side effects, like incontinence and impotence, than surgery or traditional radiation therapy.”
Proton therapy differs from traditional radiation therapy because of the way the radiation is delivered. Protons enter the body, deliver radiation, and stop at the tumor. X-rays, or photons, used in traditional radiation do the same thing, but instead of stopping, they continue past the tumor, leaving a dose of radiation as they exit the body.
“That exit dose can damage healthy tissue behind the tumor, which can lead to both short- and long-term side effects,” said Radiation Oncologist Dr. Brian Yeh. “While each form of radiation effectively kills cancer, the risk of exposure to healthy tissue and organs is lower with proton therapy.”
There are less than 50 proton therapy centers in the United States, so many of the new friends John made were from other parts of Michigan. He quickly learned his fellow out-of-towners were staying at the same place in Flint while they got treatment- the Hospitality House at McLaren Flint, which provides low and sometimes no-cost accommodations for patients and their caregivers.
“Not only were the staff at the McLaren Proton Therapy Center top notch, but the people at the Hospitality House were so wonderful,” said Bill Fegel. “I don’t know how I would have been able to get treatments without them. They made sure my stay was covered from start to finish.”
While this group of men share tremendous gratitude for the care and accommodations they received, the new bond they formed with each other was the real turning point in the healing process.
“You don’t feel alone. That’s a huge part of this. People going through the same thing. Unless you have been there and done it, it’s hard to relate,” said Fegel.
As he approached the end of his treatments, John Manchester was certain about one thing. He did not want to lose contact with these men who stood beside him on the front lines of his prostate cancer battle. He wanted “the Proton Boyz”, as they now call themselves, to continue to support each other- and any new men who might join the group.
“We decided to stay in touch and continue to meet up online. I don’t know how long this will go on, I just know that I was not ready for this to end,” John said. “It’s like we were in the foxhole together. We were fighting a real battle. That changes things.”
To learn more about proton therapy and the McLaren Proton Therapy Center, visit mclaren.org/protontherapy.