In 2020, Bill McNew and his wife, Julie, went to what they thought would be a routine colonoscopy appointment. He had been experiencing some mild IBS symptoms with blood in the stool. As this was during the pandemic, Julie brought a book, expecting to wait in the car for a couple of hours. But just 30 minutes later, her pager went off.

She was asked to come inside, and a nurse told her that the surgeon wanted to speak with her. Julie’s heart sank. “I thought to myself, ‘This can’t be good’,” she said.

The doctor didn’t sugarcoat it. “I tried to do the colonoscopy, but I couldn’t get very far,” she remembers him saying. “I’m not going to beat around the bush – you have cancer, and it’s pretty bad.”

They were stunned. “It was like being punched in the face,” Bill recalled. “We went from a normal life to cancer in an instant.”

Everything moved quickly from there. Within two weeks, Bill underwent surgery and had 18 inches of his colon removed, which was nearly 100% blocked. The physician also installed a port for chemo. The diagnosis turned out to be stage 4 metastatic colon cancer, which had spread to the liver.

Bill never hesitated. “You have to want to fight cancer ‒ it’s your full-time job,” he said. And fight it he did, with incredible determination and the help of a medical team that quickly became family.

Bill credits much of his survival to his physicians and Dr. Aarthi Rajkumar with Aultman Oncology and Hematology. “They encouraged me to get a second opinion and explore every option,” he said. That second opinion opened the door to lifesaving treatment and a liver transplant.

Bill was placed on the liver transplant list, but his MELD (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) score was low because he was still doing well ‒ too well, in fact, for a quick match. They considered a living donor but didn’t want to ask their children. “If something happened to one of them, we could never forgive ourselves,” Bill said.

Their son, Brian, volunteered and ended up being a perfect match. The transplant surgery was a success. “My son helped save my life,” Bill said.

Through it all, Bill remained resilient. “You can sit in your chair and say ‘boo-hoo Bill,’ or you can get out and go live your life,” he said. “It’s all in your mindset.”

He also had his wife by his side ‒ his greatest supporter. “My wife is my rock,” Bill said. She retired, taking on a new full-time job caring for Bill and getting him to all his appointments. “I never wanted him to feel like I wasn’t present,” Julie added. She now volunteers at the front desk of Aultman Orrville Hospital ‒ giving back to the system that gave them so much.

Today, Bill’s scans show he’s cancer-free. He continues follow-up appointments, but he’s outlived his original prognosis by more than three years. “The doctor told me without treatment, Bill might have had six months. With treatment, maybe a year and a half. But that was five years ago,” Julie said.

They still stop by Aultman Cancer Center to reconnect with the people who helped save his life. Bill refers to Kristy Russell, the gastrointestinal, head and neck cancer patient navigator, and the many wonderful nurses at Aultman Cancer Center as his “Aultman Angels.” He adds that Amy Cusano and Lauren Thewes, patient service representatives, “bring the sunshine” and make him smile at every visit. “It’s not just a job to them,” Bill said. “They care.”