Stories

Anne:    I was in the military between the reserves and active duty, for 40 years. I retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. I began my career at 18 years old and the last 15 years I did several overseas combat tours. I was assigned to tours in Iraq, Afghanistan,… Read More

I went to my primary care physician after I’d come back from an extensive Caribbean vacation. I put off whatever was going on with this little bit of blood I was seeing, until I got back from that special trip. While I was on vacation, the urgency and frequency to… Read More

Karen’s  story: My story started 11 years ago when I was 51. I started to have frequent urinary tract infections about four to five times a year. They were very severe; I had a lot of pain with them and a lot of bleeding isolated to the UTI. Then after… Read More

Camille’s Story:   I came to this meeting to start taking care of myself.  I realized that now that I’ve pushed all the way through the past three and a half years with bladder cancer, I am now at a point where I can help other people.   I was diagnosed in… Read More

Ben and his wife with their son. It all started in December of 2017. I was at a wedding and I urinated some blood. It was not a lot, but it had me worried. My wife is a nurse practitioner, so anything medical I go to her. I told her,… Read More

Megan Landy, on the right. It was in 2016, I was 25 and in Physician Assistant (PA) School. I believe it started around the summertime, and I just kept feeling like I was having the classic urinary tract infection (UTI) symptoms. But I had no hematuria and I actually… Read More

Retired firefighter Captain Tony Stefani started with the San Francisco Fire Department in 1974. The 28-year veteran retired as the Captain of Rescue 1 in 2003. After being diagnosed with transitional cell carcinoma in 2001, he founded the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation and now serves as its President. Read More

Darrell, on the right, with his husband. I am a busy guy: a telecom business owner and house flipper. Being busy, oftentimes we neglect to take of ourselves. Ask a single mom or a surgeon and they will likely tell you the same story! However, I had two episodes of… Read More

Ron with his wife. I was diagnosed on August 31, 2010. I had biopsy surgery on September 17, 2010 and a cancerous tumor was discovered and removed. On October 29, 2010 (five days after my 61st birthday), I had a radical cystectomy and neobladder surgery. I was able to… Read More