Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer

My dad, Simon Lowy, was born July 3, 1929, in the Bronx, NY, to Helen and David Lowy. He had one brother. My dad played ball on the streets—stick ball—they used the sewer tops as the bases. My dad had many friends growing up. Wendy Sloane and her dad, Simon… Read More

A very happy Annmarie with her grandson I am a schoolteacher at a high school in Mashpee, Massachusetts. I started to have symptoms in May 2018. I was at school and I got a sharp pain in my kidney area and I thought, “Oh, kidney stones.” I knew something wasn’t… Read More

I am a nephrologist and have been practicing medicine since 1976, so I look at my bladder cancer journey somewhat differently than others might.  I was having some difficulty urinating and in the process of having my prostate looked at, my doctor came out afterwards and said, “Oh, by the… Read More

I was diagnosed with stage IV bladder cancer in April 0f 2012.  I was 34 years old.  I had been in and out of the hospital prior to that because I could not urinate.  As it turned out, I had tumors wrapped around part of my bladder. When the doctor… Read More

Kimberly and her mom at the 2018 Walk to End Bladder Cancer in Washington, DC. My father was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2012, just days after his 58th birthday. He lost his mother to the disease years before I was born. Right after his diagnosis, I remember telling myself,… Read More

Tell us about your husband’s journey. My husband, Jerry, was asymptomatic. One day, his urine looked like pure blood. And was bright red. At the time, we thought it might be a bad kidney infection. The doctors ran tests, a CT scan. They told him he had a spot on… 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

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

A New Hampshire native, Anne Theriault now lives in Maryland. Anne spent many years in non-traditional careers with the US Army and in the Bureau of Prisons. She deployed four times to combat zones. Anne began taking up ballroom dancing after a challenging combat tour in Iraq. “I just did… Read More