'Putting Your Life on Hold' Changes Cancer Survivor’s Outlook

(One in a series of stories on local cancer survivors who will be volunteering and/or participating in the 2012 Relay for Life of Aliso Viejo, starting Saturday, 10 a.m. at Grand Park.)

For many people who develop cancer, just hearing the word “cancer” is not the worst part, although that one word will change your life. It is not always the endless number of doctors and specialists and treatments and therapies that one goes through over the next several months and years, although that too can be taxing in every way possible.

For people like Brad Augustine, a 15-year resident of Aliso Viejo, the most difficult part is the loss of time. Your life is put on hold, but you continue to get older, and the time spent fighting the disease you can never get back.

“Financially it’s changed my life….emotionally it’s changed my life, physically it’s changed my life. There is just a lot of lost time,” said Augustine, 45, while sitting in one of his favorite hangouts, the Starbucks in Aliso Viejo. “I’m in cancer-free remission, I got an A+ rating from the oncologist and in another six months I’ll have my last maintenance therapy then I’m done. So I’m in good shape.

“But work has been hard to find. I’m only working part-time now. In some ways I feel it has improved my life, but not really. I feel like I had a greater perception of life before. I look forward to going back to work again, going to computer school, and being a member of the church and this community.”

This Saturday, Augustine will be one of many volunteers who will be giving their time and energy to the Relay for Life of Aliso Viejo, which begins at 10 a.m. at Grand Park, Town Center. The 24-hour relay event consists of teams of people camped around a track while members of each team take turns walking around the track.

“I just got involved three months ago so this is my first event,” Augustine said. “To be a volunteer means I’m contributing to the cause.”

Augustine has developed a can-do attitude ever since doctors discovered that a thyroid nodule in his throat was cancerous just over two years ago. The diagnosis was non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Augustine went through the recommended course of action—surgery, chemotherapy, radiology and now maintenance therapy—even though he never heard those fateful words.

“They never said, ‘Oh, you’ve got cancer.’ They just said this is what you’ve got to do and when you’re doing it” Augustine said. “I knew I had cancer but they never said I had a terminal illness.”

Augustine is not married, doesn’t have his own family, and his father and nephew lives in Colorado. Instead, he has been busy building a large extended family of local worshipers and community volunteers.

Six months ago he began attending Vineyard Community Church in Laguna Niguel and now is ushering and greeting. Recently, on a Monday night, he announced that he was healed by God before the whole congregation of 152 people there. “I wasn’t the only one but a lot of people know that now,” he said.

Augustine also has become a volunteer for the Best Day Foundation, which helps children with special needs build confidence and self-esteem through adventure activities like surfing, bodyboarding, kayaking, and snow sports. He recently attended an adventure day in Ventura, which include walking through a tube of fire, a experience that he and the kids will never forget.

“The lowest point of my life was probably discovering cancer, and not being able to work was a difficult period of my life,” Augustine admitted. “But after cancer I was born again. Church is important to me and I’m having a wonderful experience being there. That, and the Best Day Foundation, is a major motivation in my life now.

“You just have to keep a positive perspective on things.”

With five days remaining, the 2012 Relay of Life of Aliso Viejo has raised $22,103 for the American Cancer Society and has registered 176 participants on 23 teams. The goal is to raise $50,000 and have 300 participants on 30 teams. For more information and to register for the event, click here.