Richard Cone was going to die, just like everybody else. But unlike most, he could foresee his moment of passing. It was coming in 2, maybe 3 more years—at least that’s what his oncologist said.
Cone had just been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. The burden of disease was only exceeded by the excruciating awareness that before very long, he’d meet his untimely end. Following his diagnosis, he lacked the desire or energy to get out of bed. His only motivation to go on living was spurred by the shoddy hope that return visits to the oncology department might produce some new and unexpected breakthrough.
And one day, they did. Following a treatment session, his oncologist approached him with a small pamphlet, only a few pages long, and placed it in his hand. On the cover, Cone read the words, “Coping with Cancer.” There was an opportunity within the folios, his doctor said.
Cone wasn’t convinced. “I had already coped with cancer,” he told MD Magazine. He had lost his 8-year-old daughter Tanya to the disease and was just beginning to move on before the condition began to haunt him, too.