“Go talk to Greg”

Greg takes time to celebrate his life - and his great catch - on a trip to Alaska.

I met Greg Barnhill and his wife Sue in a BBQ restaurant near Houston while I was in town visiting my aunt, uncle and cousins. Even before our meeting, I could tell Greg was a man of patience and kindness. I think I changed our meeting place and date three times!

So it was no surprise to learn how Greg, who has survived ocular melonama and mesothelioma, graciously gives his time to other cancer patients.

On his lunch hour, you can find Greg sitting in the chemo suite talking to someone who looks lost and helpless. Or you might see Greg in his role as a volunteer hospital chaplain, counseling and offering assistance to patients and their families. When a fellow parishioner at his church is diagnosed with cancer, someone will tell them, “Go talk to Greg.”

Greg certainly has a lot of experience and hope to share. From 2001 to  2006, he’s had seven surgeries. After the removal of his eye following a recurrence of ocular melanoma, Greg learned he had developed a rare form of mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Greg thinks the exposure came from his work as an insurance inspector of fires and scenes like the Oklahoma City bombing. Typically mesothelioma is found in the lungs; Greg’s was in his omentum, a layer that covers the abdomen and liver.

They told me “This is not a curable cancer, but maybe we can manage it.” At that time, depending on what you read, the mortality rate was anywhere 8.5 to 18 months. Had I not been doing my follow-ups, they wouldn’t have found it.

I don’t have a gallbladder, spleen omentum and  left eye, but thanks to the man upstairs taking good care of me, I’m here for a reason.

Greg’s cancer is in remission; a feat he also attributes to the cutting-edge treatment he received at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD.  He now advocates for research dollars to this institution:

We spend more in a day in Iraq than we do all year at the National Cancer Institutes. The doctor who led the clinical trial I was on since left to go to a private practice. They are losing doctors and nurses. Research is invaluable, so I really push to keep the research dollars coming.

Want to learn more? Go talk to Greg … or you read more about him in my book!