Lung Cancer Survivor Story
Speaking on the theme Resilience at Speaker Slam® in Toronto on Jan 24, 2018, Phil Tasci took the stage with a five minute story and placed second.
Transcript
you probably can't tell from looking at me but there is less of me here today than there used to be know who this is not a speech about here boss 2017 literally ripped a pound of flesh right on me or somewhere thereabouts exactly path along is what the surgeons removed they all started to this past summer I stood up and suddenly I felt this this really weird thing it was like standing on a canoe in choppy water except I was standing in my living room I went to the doctors and the doctors were completely baffled and so they put me in a hospital bed they
gave me a wheelchair in a bit and then they subjected me to more tests than in my rant for the next two weeks and finally on this beautiful sunny summer day the doctors told me Phil that word cancer was like an echo chamber in my mind bouncing back and forth getting louder and longer and longer it was like a freight train coming straight at me and I'm tied down and there's something something snapped inside of me and how do we use this Brooklyn accent it's a hanging or a baby boom if you're going out of this room go with the band and a smile on
your face they literally laughed what was I come into serendipity just before I got my diagnosis I had been reading this tiny little book by Viktor Frankl called man's search for meaning and in it he says everything can be taken from you except one thing your attitude to the situation your choice I said your mission is to make every single nurse laugh and smile otherwise like this that change in attitude was the beginning of the most transformative period of my life for the first time I mean I'm 48 years old for the first time in my life I felt free I shared my fears and
when I shared my struggles with just being positive now I don't see this true pressure rather to impress upon you to have the power you have the power of choice you get to choose your add to any situation and so for me this year I had a long-term I am bouncing beyond
Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.