Tom Galjour’s Stage 4 small-cell lung cancer was supposed to kill him long ago and it almost did. Then, one day, Tom declined to die. More than two and a half years into his epic battle to live (the five year survival rate is less than two percent) he invited his old college friend and journalist, Ken Wells, inside his fight. Wells takes readers on a poignant and personal journey — a narrative of struggle, fear, friendship, the limits and promises of contemporary cancer medicine and the elixir that hope, will and optimism play in this most intimate of stories. The grace of the narrative is in the scenes and details that paint Galjour as more than simply a cancer victim. In a way, the piece is a travelogue through the heart, mind and daily regimen of a man determined to live fully in the face of an implacable disease.
