“All cancer patients want to know how long I have,” Harnett County’s woman recalled, adding, “and it’s a question we don’t really want to ask, but we want to know. And they told me, maybe 10, 15 years at most. “
Goff had just been diagnosed with fourth-stage colorectal cancer, a cancer that can be prevented.
He was 51 years old.
A resident of Dunn, he recalled how his case put the small town to his ear and taught him from his first fight against cancer the value his defense could have.
The news quickly spread about his surgery and diagnosis.
Apparently, people saw it as a precautionary tale and began receiving colonoscopies.
“I was later contacted by a pharmacist friend of mine in the city who said that right after my surgery when everyone started hearing about me, the preparation for the colonoscopy was almost exhausted,” Goff recalled.
This is one of the reasons why he happily joined forces with the people of Fight Colorectal Cancer.
And now, during National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, he is fighting hard not only for his own life, but for other lives as well.
When he turned 50, this was the recommended age for colonoscopy. But he postponed it because he had no family history of cancer.
“I learned that if you have colon, you could have colon cancer,” Goff warned.
A few months after her diagnosis, the American Cancer Society reduced the recommended age for a first colonoscopy to 45 years.
According to his doctors, it was probably the approximate age at which the cancer began to develop.
In retrospect, he said, “If I had gone to 45, they would probably have found early polyps and they could be eliminated. And that would have prevented them from becoming cancer.”
He wants everyone 45 and older to have colonoscopies and said there is no longer any concern about the fact that the procedure is uncomfortable or painful.
“Preparation has been a lot easier,” he said. “And the procedure itself, you’re anesthetized, you’re removed. So you don’t feel anything.”
Goff noted that children under the age of 45 should be aware of the symptoms and that there are things they can do to prevent colon cancer.
“A lot of younger people show up with cancer,” Goff said. “There are kids who, you know, are teens and preadolescents with stage four colon cancer, between the ages of 20 and 30. So people need to know what the signs and symptoms are.”
While talking to ABC11 about his trip, near Dunn were bottles of experimental chemotherapy capsules.
He recently joined a clinical trial of the new chemotherapy after other chemotherapy treatments were ineffective.
She refuses to stop fighting.
“In the fourth phase, it’s a cancer that has a 14% survival rate,” Goff said. “But my husband says I’m lousy in statistics and I don’t want to become one. So I don’t listen to that part.”
So heed his warnings because if your efforts to inform others help save lives, it will certainly provide additional inspiration in your struggle to save your own.
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