CHARLOTTE, NC – Climbing and lung cancer are not two things that usually go together. On Saturday, however, a South Carolina man in his fifth year battling stage 4 lung cancer climbed 800 steps to raise awareness of the disease.
The day started with a phone call at 6 am for the Smith family to head to Charlotte.
Shortly after his lung cancer diagnosis in 2016, Mike Smith, 55, discovered that he also had brain tumors.
He didn’t think he would be going up and down those stairs five years later, and looking good doing it.
“We’ll see, almost done,” says Smith.
The night before the charity event was just as important as the event itself, where he spent time at home with his support system, which included his family and his dog, Daisy, who he says helped save him.
“Pre-COVID, during the day I stay at home working alone. It helped me to have my best friend here, and she was a little lifesaver and made me go every two hours or so when I was a puppy … you are taking the dog for a walk outside, so you mobilized me . It is very important for physical activity, not only for lung cancer, but also for cancer in general ”, says Smith.
After being diagnosed, he needed all the support he could get.
“When I was first diagnosed, I didn’t know anyone who had lung cancer. I didn’t have a friend, ”explains Smith.
He says that meeting people at these charity events and support groups, especially during the early stages of his diagnosis, has helped a lot.
“You lean on them, it’s the people you ask these questions because you spend your time with your oncologist and your medical team and stuff, but they don’t have cancer, they don’t have it. You want someone, that human touch, which is also going through a similar kind of journey and can relate to you and what’s going on, ”says Smith.
All that support from his groups, his wife and children brought him to this moment of climbing 800 steps.
“I wasn’t sure where the end was, but I knew I could do it,” says Smith.
This was promoted by the American Lung Association, which Mike Smith says his research was a miracle for him.
He takes a targeted therapy pill daily that continues to save his life without chemotherapy or radiation.