Bill Crooks

Grand Rapids Township

After my doctor said the word “cancer,” I didn’t hear much else. Hearing the diagnosis, it felt like life was over. But that was in 1993, when I was 60. I opted for surgery to “get it out” of my body, and it was a successful operation—I’ve been cancer-free for 25 years, although I continue to live with the side-effects. Since then, I have remained involved with The Survivors, a prostate cancer education and support group, and as a mentor to men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer and are in the process of making a decision, or living with the decisions that they have made and the treatments they have had.