Joshua's Story

His name is Josh Davis.


He was this year's Event Chair
for one of the Relays For Life here in East Texas.
In the weeks leading up to the Relay, everything seemed to be
falling exactly into place (minus a few
minor details, which is always to be expected when planning an event).  This
year was also shaping to be his most memorable year yet out of the
eight years he has been involved, for numerous reasons.  One of those,
being that he was twenty years old and chairing a fairly large event
and that this was one of the
first times since Hurricane Rita that teams were actually very
pumped about Relay.

             The week of Relay, he got extremely excited.
The event week was shaping up to be great.  They had taken in a decent
amount of money; more than they had in the week before the 2008 event.
In addition to getting closer to their goal, the weather was looking to
be perfect for Relay.  Rain was a big concern of ours since a couple
of events close to theirs had been rained out in the weeks prior.
             Friday, May 15th was event day and everything could
not have gone any better.  They had everything set up early and the
weather was AMAZING.  In fact, things were going so well, Josh thought he
must have forgotten to do something very important.   About two hours
before Opening Ceremony, the treasurer mentioned to his committeethat Josh should shave his head if we reach goal.  They were at
around $90,000 at that point and he thought that it would be a fun way
to encourage people to turn in more money so Josh announced at
Opening Ceremony that should they reach goal,  he would shave his head.

             Throughout the night, he walked the track and kept
encouraging people to turn in money.  That must have helped quite a bit,
because around midnight the treasurer told him over the walkie talkie
that we needed some clippers because they were very close to goal.  At about
12:30AM on May16th, Josh shaved his head, being a man of his word.  We
made it into a big deal by announcing it and having everyone come and
watch.  The remainder of the night was a blast and the event wrapped up
on a very positive note, they had reached goal.

             That Saturday afternoon, May 16th after Josh had washed
the purple paint off of the little bit of hair he had left and his
scalp, his mom happened to look at his head and notice a couple of
spots that looked “funny” to her. She advised him to get them checked.
He waited until that following Thursday and then had a doctor and
fellow volunteer look at them before he was referred to his
dermatologist and had an appointment for that Tuesday after Memorial
Day.

             On Tuesday, May 26th, Josh went to his dermatologist and
had him biopsy the spot.  From that point he and his family waited for
nearly a week before the doctor told them that he “was not sure what
he was looking at” so he sent his slides over to M.D. Anderson for a
second opinion.

             Then, he waited another 17 days before he
heard anything else.  On Friday, June 12, 2009, he received a
phone call from the dermatologist.  They told his mom, “Mrs. Davis, we
received the results back from M.D. Anderson and we are sorry to tell
you that Josh has Melanoma.”


This is what Josh had to say about the diagnosis:

            "As hard as it was to hear those words, I knew
everything would be okay.  I am a strong believer that everything
happens for a reason and God has a plan for everything that happens.
And He wanted me to shave my head and find those spots.  Now that I
know what is wrong, I can move forward and cure this cancer called
Melanoma.  And once I am finished with all my treatment, I intend to
make my story known to any and everyone who wants to listen,
because the American Cancer Society and Relay For Life saved my life.
Had I not been involved with the ACS, had I not
chaired the event, had I not been dared to shave my head, and had my
event not reached goal, I would still to this day be unaware of my
Melanoma. The important thing is I do know and I am doing something
about it."

Inspirational story, isn't it?
One of the many reasons why I love what I do.

To see more on Josh -  go HERE.