While speaking to my friend last Thursday evening, I sensed a little apprehension in his voice before he dropped a bombshell on me.
“Dude, I guess you have been out of the loop. I have been in the hospital for the last two weeks, they diagnosed me with Stage 3 colon cancer,” Nick Moore told me over the phone.
How is this even possible? Moore, a television ratings analyst for NASCAR, is just 39 years old; a youngster in my book. How can a guy like that have colon cancer?
I knew Nick had been experiencing some back pains in recent months, but he chalked them up to a possible pinched nerve caused by his unruly golf swing.
But two Sundays ago, he said he awoke in the middle of the night.
“I felt like I was freezing but my temperature was 102 and my heart was racing and I had severe abdominal pain,” he said. “I drove myself to the ER, where they eventually diagnosed the cancer. They said the cancer had perforated my colon and caused sepsis and had I not come in when I did, I most likely would have died in 48 hours.”
Moore spent 12 days in the hospital as doctors fought the life-threatening condition, and will spend the next 30 days selfadministering antibiotics to eliminate the infection. He then faces an incredibly difficult road in front of him, likely looking at chemo, radiation and surgery for the cancer itself. Already at Stage 3, there is no guarantee what the outcome will be.
Under normal situations, Nick is not the type to draw self-attention and medical conditions are pretty much private matters.
Except this is not a normal situation.
His story needs to be told, because Nick wants it told.
“I’ll be honest, I am a bit relieved,” Moore told me when I went to see him in the hospital. “I now know what I am dealing with. I’m relieved because I went to the ER before the infection killed me. And I am relieved to know that I have a fighting chance to beat this thing.”
After he started feeling a little better, Moore said he spent hours talking to his doctors and nurses about colon cancer.
“I found out colon cancer is a lot more prevalent in younger people today than it has been in any other time in our history. The doctors are telling me they are seeing more and more young people with it than ever before. There’s a reason why they keep lowering the age for first colonoscopies. If it is caught early enough it has a high survival rate.”
At this point, Nick replaced the apprehension, anger and fear most of us would be experiencing with resolve.
“It would be pretty easy to feel sorry for myself, complain and ask, ‘Why me?’” Nick said. “But I decided the real question should be, ‘Why Not me?’ Cancer doesn’t play favorites and can strike anyone. I have fully accepted what has happened. The only thing left is how I react.”
One the first things he decided to do is to create awareness of the dangers of colon cancer and how it is showing up in young people. Moore has wasted little time in his new mission.
From his hospital bed, he appeared on a Los Angeles radio show, and has created the Facebook page Nick’s Journey that quickly gained 200 followers. He is in talks with his NASCAR family about creating and working on a possible colon cancer awareness campaign.
“In many ways, I feel relieved, happy and blessed,” Moore said. “I am relieved to now know exactly what I am up against. I am happy that I got to the ER room in time before the sepsis killed me and I am blessed that I now have an opportunity and platform to tell people to please listen to their bodies and get screened for colon cancer. I have no idea how this is going to turn out for me, but I know I am going to fight this disease for both myself and others.”
Moore believes awareness and education is the path to staying healthy and recommends an Advent Health website, found here: https://bit.ly/3ul1FW2
A long-time News-Gazette sports contributor, Dan Pearson has been friends with Nick Moore since 2006 and is joining Nick’s fight to create colon cancer awareness.
