How Wade Became a "Walking PSA" for Colonoscopy

Like many, Wade paused some of his health care screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He had just turned 50 and knew he was overdue for a colonoscopy. But with health care focused on critical patients and limiting the spread of the virus, elective procedures were not an option. The next year, at age 51, Wade had his first colonoscopy.

Immediately following the procedure, Wade got tough news.

“My physician didn’t mince words,” he says. “He said, ‘Wade, you have a large tumor and I’m pretty certain it’s cancer.’” The doctor said he had biopsied the tumor and would have results in a few days, but “it looks like cancer.”

In the months ahead, Wade’s routine screening would lead to the diagnosis and treatment of stage three colorectal cancer.

“All my life I’ve been a positive person,” Wade says. “I’ve never met a stranger. I love to talk to people.”

His family is in on the fun. In 2022, they submitted a 624-lb “sticker ball” to the Guinness Book of World Records. What started as a project with his daughter Sofie collecting and adding stickers to the growing ball became a four-year endeavor, with Wade sourcing stickers from across the community.

Wade’s hobbies naturally connect him with others. He started playing darts in 2000, a hobby he’s so passionate about he became president of the Atlanta-Decatur Darts Association, with more than 200 participants. In fall 2024, his darts team even won the association’s championship tournament, earning a larger-than-life darts trophy.

In addition to his job in information technology for Emory University, Wade has a “side hustle” as a professional casino dealer. As a former poker dealer on the World Poker tour at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi, now he deals cards at “casino night” fundraising events or conventions. There is no gambling, but chips are converted into raffle tickets and, he says, “they give ‘fabulous’ prizes.”

A cancer diagnosis opened up a whole new element of Wade’s life—becoming a cancer patient at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Part of Emory Healthcare, Winship Cancer Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Georgia, offering access to new and groundbreaking cancer therapies.

After his stage three colorectal cancer diagnosis, Wade began his treatment plan. First, three months of infusion chemotherapy at Winship Cancer Institute’s Clifton Road location, then a month and a half of radiation therapy at the Emory Proton Therapy Center in Midtown Atlanta.

“At that point it looked like I might be out of the woods,” he says. “When they were doing scans, it looked like the large tumor had disappeared. We had to ‘wait and watch.’”

Three months later, however, a scan showed the tumor was growing back. This meant Wade would need resection surgery—a surgical procedure to remove part or all of an organ or tissue.

In February 2022, Wade’s care team removed 11 inches of his colon and about 25 lymph nodes.

After the operation, Wade got some good news. The cancer had not spread. Pathology showed the cancer was focused in the center of the area that was removed. “Which means I was able to live cancer free,” Wade says.

As part of his recovery, Wade had an ileostomy, a surgical procedure that creates an opening through the abdominal wall to reach the small intestine. Then, a bag is attached that helps process food waste the way the intestines ordinarily do.

Depending on each patient’s health, some patients may only need an ileostomy for several months, but some require it for the rest of their lives. As his colon healed, Wade’s surgical oncologist was able to reverse the ileostomy after six weeks and resume regular digestion.

Wade’s care team at Winship Cancer Institute continues to monitor his colon with regular scans. “We’re still trying to be diligent about making sure that the cancer doesn’t return, which is something that I really appreciate,” he says.

Wade’s experience is a testament to shifting guidelines around colorectal cancer screening. Now, the American Cancer Society recommends a first screening for colon cancer at age 45—or earlier if you have a family history.

“I was lucky,” Wade says, “Although the cancer was stage 3, early detection helped me overcome it. They were able to stop the spread quickly.”

Wade encourages everyone to make a colonoscopy their priority. “The only reason they were able to detect cancer early is because I listened to my doctors,” Wade says. “When they said, ‘Come in for that colonoscopy,’ I did. And a lot of people—especially males—are very antsy about colonoscopies.”

As a result of his experience, Wade says, “I’ve been a walking PSA for getting colonoscopies, and getting them earlier.”

Wade kept up his positive attitude throughout his cancer experience. But he says it sometimes masks what he is actually feeling inside.

He especially felt this after completing his cancer treatment. “They say, ‘You’re cancer-free!’ And you go home and you’re like, ‘Yay!’ But you don’t feel normal,” he says.

“You feel very changed, very different. And it was only then—after all the steps were done, the playbook was closed—that now I had to go and learn how to live my life post-cancer in a life that was very different.”

One thing that was different were the after-effects of his cancer treatments. “There were things about my body and my physiology that had definitely changed as a result of the trauma of cancer, and I internalized a lot of those changes,” Wade says. “I went into a pretty dark area of depression.”

Fortunately, Wade’s care team connected him with Wendy Baer, MD, Winship’s director of psychiatric oncology. He has been seeing her for monthly talk therapy sessions.

“Depression was definitely affecting my effectiveness as an employee, as a husband and a dad, and I really wanted to be able to do the things that I could do because I clearly have a long life ahead of me,” says Wade.

“I’m blessed to have become cancer-free, with Winship’s help. I want to be able to live my life to the fullest moving forward.”