“Cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me. It certainly changed my life for the better.”

This perspective, shared by cancer research advocate and HCRN board member Ted Stansbury, may seem counterintuitive. But to Stansbury, the experience with cancer opened him to a greater awareness of what really mattered.

[Photo: Ted Stansbury with his friend and medical oncologist Patrick J. Loehrer, Sr., MD.]

“It gave me a lot of insight,” he said. “The day before I found out I had a tumor, the things that were important to me were how my golf game was and my work. Those became completely unimportant, and the important things in life became my family, my faith, and my friends. Cancer taught me to appreciate every day. It took nothing away.”

Born and raised on a cattle farm in a town about 20 miles south of Bloomington, Ind., Stansbury attended Indiana State University where he obtained his Bachelor of Science in education. After graduation, he worked in the insurance industry before starting his own manufacturers’ representative agency in 1980. In 2001, he moved to Par-Kan Company, where he led marketing over all four divisions of the company until his retirement in 2014.

Whether in business or in his personal life, Stansbury has always sought to live by a simple credo: Treat others as you would want to be treated. “From the first time that I meet someone and shake hands, whether it is five minutes or five hours that we are together, I like to think that I can walk away from that person and I will always be welcome back to see them,” Stansbury said. “The biggest lesson that I have learned over the last 40 years is to make relationships and build on them.”

Life, Interrupted

The events leading up to Stansbury’s cancer diagnosis more than 15 years ago are still fresh in his memory. The night before leaving an out-of-state trade show, Stansbury fell violently ill. “I was sick enough that I put the phone in bed with me thinking that I might have to call 911,” he recalls. Upon returning home, with symptoms subsiding, Stansbury had to weigh his health concerns against those of every-day life.

Stansbury visited an urgent care clinic and received a call back the day before a planned vacation. “And The nurse said, ‘You need to come in and see the doctor,’” he recalls. “I said, ‘Well, I am leaving for Florida tomorrow, I do not really have time.’ She said, ‘You really do need to come in and see him.’ I told her, ‘no’ a couple of times and finally the doctor came on and said, ‘We found a mass on your left lung.’”

At the beginning of his cancer experience, Stansbury learned hard lessons about the mental and emotional burdens cancer patients carry. “I made arrangements to have a CT scan done and see a pulmonary doctor within a couple days. He used words like ‘it is troublesome,’ ‘it is worrisome,’ and ‘it is concerning,’ and I was thinking, ‘If it is troublesome and worrisome to him, it probably should be to me,’” Stansbury recalls. “He told me a number of times, ‘We will not know what it is until we do a biopsy,’ and I asked him repeatedly for his guess and he declined. Finally, I said, ‘If this were your CT scan, what would you think that you had?’ He said, ‘Well I would be guessing, but I would think that I had small cell lung cancer, and that it was stage 4, that it was attached to my aorta, that it was inoperable, and I probably had three to six months.’”

From Despair to Hope

“One of the things I will always remember is how your mind can kind of shut down and push out the knowledge of what’s happening; it is so hard to get your arms around,” Stansbury said. “I found out early on that not knowing sometimes is worse than knowing.”

Stansbury was referred from a thoracic doctor to a surgeon to an oncologist. Neither Stansbury nor his oncologist, Patrick J. Loehrer, Sr., MD, could have known the long-term impact their meeting would have on each other, and on many others. Dr. Loehrer is director of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center and a co-founder of Hoosier Cancer Research Network.

“I asked Pat if there was particular research being done on this type of cancer that I could participate in, and he looked at me kind of funny, as if most people do not ask this,” Stansbury said. “But it was already in my head that if I could do something that was going to help others, then that was what I would like to do.”

“They did three needle biopsies and all were inconclusive,” Stansbury said. “After the last one, Pat said, ‘We need to get you scheduled, we really have to get that out. We can do it Thursday morning or Friday afternoon,’ and I said, ‘Well, I need to go home and think about it.’ I had decided that if the cancer did not kill me, I probably would not live through the operation anyway, because it was a fairly serious procedure. He said, ‘That’s fine. I am scheduling you for Thursday morning.’ He just did it, and I will never forget that.”

The surgery was a success. “We had the tumor removed, and it took eight days for it to be diagnosed; it proved to be stage 2 thymoma,” Stansbury recalls. “It has now been over 15 years. I see Pat once a year, and I am still cancer-free. The care that I got at the IU Simon Cancer Center was just terrific. I hope that I never have need to go back, but I would not consider going anywhere else.”

From Survivor to Advocate

The completion of Stansbury’s treatment was not the end of his fight against cancer; rather, he found a new passion as an advocate. Dr. Loehrer invited Stansbury to chair an annual golf tournament that raised funds for HCRN research. “From that experience, I learned more about patient advocacy and clinical research, and became increasingly involved. I did a little bit of speaking and talking about my experiences with cancer and it rolled on from there,” Stansbury said.

Ted Stansbury with Cyndi Burkhardt, RN, executive director of HCRN.

While respect has always been natural to Stansbury, the way he expressed it in patient advocacy was learned. “I remember, many years ago, a good friend was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and he was debating whether to have chemo. I said, ‘You have got to do it,’ and he looked at me and said, ‘No offense, but you do not know what you have to do until it is you.’ He was exactly right,” Stansbury recalls.

After dealing with cancer himself, Stansbury understood that empowerment and support are the healing language for people with cancer. “My counsel, only if I am asked, is: this is very personal for you. You have to decide if you want to turn to your faith. You have to decide how or if you want to have it treated. You have to decide if you want to see people. You cannot have anyone tell you, ‘this is what you need to do,’ because it is maybe the most personal decision that you will ever make,” Stansbury said. “When I talk with people that may have just gotten a diagnosis, I try to remember where I was when I got mine and what state I was in. I might answer questions for them about treatment and that kind of thing, but I try not to say, ‘this is what you should do.’ It is very personal.”

As Stansbury’s passion for advocacy continued to grow, so did his involvement with HCRN. “I made the statement to Pat, ‘You know, you have almost all doctors on your board. You do not have outside, non-medical people to give you feedback on what you are doing,’” Stansbury said. “About six months after that, I was asked to join the board.”

Reflecting on his years on the HCRN Board of Directors, Stansbury said: “The Board has always treated me with respect, and I greatly appreciate that. I have always felt like my opinion counted. It is so heartening to know that you have people of this caliber who are working every day to find a cure.”

Today, Stansbury continues to serve on the HCRN board while enjoying retirement in Florida with his wife, Barbara. He and Dr. Loehrer remain close friends.

About Hoosier Cancer Research Network:

Hoosier Cancer Research Network (formerly known as Hoosier Oncology Group) conducts innovative cancer research in collaboration with academic and community physicians and scientists across the United States. The organization provides comprehensive clinical trial management and support, from conception through publication. Created in 1984 as a program of the Walther Cancer Institute, Hoosier Cancer Research Network became an independent nonprofit clinical research organization in 2007. Since its founding, Hoosier Cancer Research Network has conducted more than 180 trials in a variety of cancer types and supportive care, resulting in more than 350 publications. More than 7,500 subjects have participated in Hoosier Cancer Research Network clinical trials.