WAXHAW, N.C. — A Waxhaw father is grateful to be alive after he battled a cancer that’s becoming all too familiar with men across the U.S.
Now, he’s warning others to take the signs seriously even if you’re under 50.
Channel 9 shared his story as Colon Cancer Awareness Month ends.
“I don’t wish time away or wish the day away, you know?” said Travis O’Leary, 42, cancer survivor and father of two.
He got bad news last year.
“Toward the end of 2023, I started seeing some blood in my stools and stuff like that,” he said. “After three, four months of that, it got, I got pretty worried.”
His wife was worried, too.
“He’s like, ‘No, it’s like copious amounts of blood,’” Caitlin O’Leary said. “And I’m like, ‘That’s not normal.’”
A doctor found a tumor and said Travis O’Leary had Stage 3 colon cancer.
“It didn’t really hit me until the next day,” said Travis O’Leary. “I was at work, and I just started thinking about (my children). That hit me pretty hard, thinking, not seeing them grow up, and them not getting to know me.”
He went through 16 weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.
Surgeons went in and removed the cancerous tumor, a portion of the large intestine and surrounding lymph nodes.
The journey was brutal, Travis O’Leary said.
“I remember one day I was just like, green. My hair would fall out by the fistfuls,” he said.
His recovery was painful. His intestines didn’t work properly at first, which put him back in a hospital with tubes down his throat.
“Man, it, it like broke, it broke me,” he said.
“It’s a helpless experience because it’s something outside of your control,” said Caitlin O’Leary.
Colon cancer has recently become more prevalent in younger adults.
About 1 in 5 colorectal patients are adults under 55, according to the American College of Surgeons.
It is now the type of cancer that causes the most deaths in men under 50.
Travis O’Leary remembered what his doctor told him the day of the diagnosis.
“I said, ‘Well, I would have seen you in a couple years for my routine checkup,’” he said. “And he said, ‘No, you wouldn’t have. You wouldn’t have made it till then.’”
Travis O’Leary won the battle with help from the doctors’ action plan at Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute and his family’s support.
He has been cancer-free since Dec. 26, 2024.
“When I finally got back to health, the first time we went out to the little swing set out there, and just I was able to get back out there with them,” he said about the unforgettable day.
Travis O’Leary said he’s grateful for the support he got from family, friends, and his co-workers at Charlotte Water.
They held a fundraiser, raising thousands of dollars to help the family.
He said people should get checked out if they see any symptoms.
VIDEO: Local surgeon issues warning about blood tests to screen for colon cancer
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