Mark S.

About Mark S.

Meeting My Superman …I was diagnosed in December, 2015 following a routine Dr. visit. I had no signs or symptoms, but I had turned 50 so my PSA was tested. My Dr. called me at home that night to say that everything was fine except the PSA score was 20.1 ( it was supposed to be below 4 for normal) At his suggestion we waited a few days and tested it again, it came back 21.1 this time so I was referred to a specialist. The next couple weeks consisted of scans, tests and biopsies, and finally to robotic surgery on Jan 20th 2016. At that time, I was told that the cancer had spread, it was Stage 4 , cancer free would no longer be an option, the focus would change to treatment. Somewhere in this process , I came across a song called SUPERMAN , sung by singer / songwriter Jimmy Charles. It was as if the song was written for me . Fast forward to January 2018, surgery complete, 39 radiation treatments completed and well into a three year program of Androgen Depravation Therapy. My life was a mess emotionally, I was ready to give up. Medically I was OK but mentally I was done! Throughout this entire ordeal I continued to listen to SUPERMAN almost daily, I found solace in the song and video and vowed that I wanted to see Jimmy Charles perform someday. While I thought I was hiding my depression rather well, my wife, son and daughter could see right through my façade. My daughter sent an email to Jimmy Charles asking him about dates that he would be performing , they wanted to send me to Nashville to see him. This was all happening unbeknownst to me. Jimmy replied back to my daughter in very short time that he would do one better, he would come to my hometown and put on a private concert for me and my friends. He had a show in New York and would simply come a day earlier. Well, NY is a big state!!! I live nearly 7 hours away from the city, but even that didn’t deter him. On March 20th 2018, Jimmy Charles came to my hometown of Gouverneur NY and put on a special concert just for me , and sang SUPERMAN just for me. Needless to say , I didn’t stop crying the entire night! As the night progressed, Jimmy presented my family and I with front row seats to a concert he was opening for in Ocean City Maryland along with ocean front suites for the weekend. To say I was blown away was an understatement!!!! When he presented me with the tickets etc. , he also said that in order to continue, he was requiring me to sign a contract that I would never give up!! The only thing we had to write on was apiece of cardboard, but it was written , he signed and I signed it and the entire room of people were in tears just as I was! In the next weeks, Jimmy Charles kept in close contact with me ( and still does to this day) He wanted to come up with a way to make all cancer survivors feel the love and support that I did on that night. As a result, #IAMNOTALONE was formed, a formal contract similar to the original was designed and Jimmy applied for paperwork to start a full 501c3 non profit organization to reach the individuals dealing with cancer and show them that they are in fact never alone! He has also written a new song titled ( appropriately ) I Am Not Alone that song was released in November 2018. On November 10th, I flew to Nashville with my daughter and many other people from across the US to film what will become the video for the new song , we marched across the footbridge on the Cumberland River in Nashville chanting the chorus to the new song. This entire experience has changed my outlook on life and given me the strength to continue treatments for as long as I need to win this battle with cancer.

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