As Milton Morgan was driving away from St. Bernards, just a few minutes after being diagnosed with throat cancer, a flashing billboard caught his eye.
“You’ve Got This!” the billboard said.
Milton couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
He was so moved, he turned his car around, grabbed a pen and an old envelope, and started jotting down the other encouraging notes on the billboard: “Live More, Worry Less,” “Believe You Can,” “Rise Above It.”
Despite the bad news Milton had just received, he felt a sense of calm that day.
His journey began a few weeks before, when he found a lump in his neck while shaving. Milton had a cancerous tumor on one of his tonsils and needed surgery as soon as possible.
“I was scared when I heard the news that day,” he says. “But when I saw that scrolling billboard, I decided right then – I was going to be okay. I was going to make it through this.”
Milton’s surgery was extensive, but he was up walking around the following day. He underwent an aggressive regiment of chemotherapy and radiation, but he drove himself to and from every appointment.
With every setback, or every hurdle, Milton, now cancer-free, overcame it.
“I cannot say enough wonderful things about the entire St. Bernards team,” he says. “From the dietician who helped me when I couldn’t eat solid food, to the receptionist who saw me sitting alone that first day and came to sit with me for a bit. The entire care team went out of their way to help me and I will be forever grateful.”
Milton, who traveled daily from West Memphis to Jonesboro for his treatments, never wavered in his belief that everything would be okay.
“I kept that envelope with those sayings on it, and I looked at it anytime I needed encouragement,” he says. “I truly feel like St. Bernards saved my life, and I am so grateful to the entire Cancer Center team for believing in me.”
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