Jamie Comer: How My Life Was Saved

Jamie Comer wants to change the way we talk about cancer. Here’s her story.

I want to tell you how my life was saved. But first, I want to tell you about Randy Gonzalez.

Randy turned his life around after two stints in prison. He became a Tik Tok star with his 7-year-old son and amassed 15 million followers. Then he was diagnosed with incurable stage 4 colon cancer.

With incredible vulnerability, he shared his sadness about dying. The media covered his story until the end at age 35 when they said – like most do - he “lost his battle.”

I have the same incurable diagnosis as randy, I want his voice to be mine when I say this: Please stop using that phrase and start naming our cancer. Saying we are losers of battles is heartless. And without a durable solution for tumors that start in one organ and go to another, we can’t lose a battle there was never an opportunity to win.

When we name cancer, we take the disease out of the abstract. We  affirm a patient’s humanity. We lost Randy Gonzalez to stage 4 colon cancer. This is clear and compassionate, and it acknowledges the community that supported him.

Because of Randy's bravery, there is a generation of parents that will watch their kids graduate from college because they got a colonoscopy and caught a polyp before it became cancer. Keep in mind, by 2030, colorectal cancer will be the leading cause of death in people under 50.

Naming cancer has another benefit. It can help connect the dots in our community. This is how my life was saved. I have stage 4 colon cancer that metastasized to my liver. A friend talked to a friend at a wedding who knew someone with my cancer. From this, I was connected to a doctor who took my diagnosis from dying in 3-6 months to living for the last 7 years. I’ve had seven surgeries and 150 rounds of chemo; I am still here raising my daughter Olivia who just turned 15.

That would have never happened if the specific cancer wasn’t named. And isn’t that how life works? The people we love take care of us, but it can be a stranger that saves our life.

With a Perspective, I’m Jamie Comer.

Jamie Comer is a top 100 real estate agent in San Francisco who has been getting chemo every other week for seven years.