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TRUCKER'S STORY * USA - ‘Dying’ man beats cancer, recovers beloved big rig
Odessa,TX,USA -The Houston Chronicle, by MATTHEW MCGOWAN -April 18, 2009: -- Several years ago, Odessa truck driver Chris Andersen was somewhere in the Midwest, eastbound in a make-do truck when he looked in his rearview mirror and saw a familiar sight — a purple 2000 model Kenworth... It looked a lot like the one he sold when doctors told him he was going to die... In 2003, he noticed a lump buried under his chest-length beard, which abruptly had begun to fall out... The doctor diagnosed him with Stage 4 cancer, Andersen said, he was more angry than he was scared at the time, so he defiantly told the doctor he refused to let the disease — which Andersen said kills 999 out of 1,000 people diagnosed with it — get the better of him... An intensive cancer treatment regimen followed, and Andersen’s weight dropped from 217 pounds to 114 by the spring of 2004... Andersen said “I told her this ain’t gonna kill me”... And it didn’t. The cancer went into remission... But illness did leave him penniless and without a truck to earn a living again. Andersen managed to buy another truck, the make-do rig he was driving when he looked in the rearview mirror and found his old Kenworth... The truck’s new owner had a bit of a soft spot for Andersen and offered to sell it to him at a bargain... “I thought beating cancer was awful damn good,” Andersen said, “But this? I’m not that lucky.”... He said it costs him $2,000 per month to keep the truck... Andersen hopes to take it out on a tour to pay for it. He already signed up to participate in several fundraising events for local cancer centers, but the future of Survivor remains in doubt... (Photo by Curtis Trucking.com: The purple flatbed Kenworth)
Labels: truckers' stories
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