For a guy who’s escaped the shadow of death more times than most of us have ever felt its cold shiver, Tony Clark is one happy man.
Clark is a born salesman who seems to have talked the Grim Reaper into taking a vacation.
“It takes a special person to sell Canadian toilet paper to the Americans,” the former vice-president of sales for Cascade Paper, who worked for a decade in the U.S., laughs.
And it takes a special person, and a special family, to dodge the death sentence that should have come automatically with the diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) that Clark got May 11, 2005. The back pain that had ruined his ski trip turned out to be caused by a large mass that had already spread outside his kidney.
“We were both shattered. We were both in tears,” Clark said in an interview at his home on The Collegeway, recalling the moment he and wife Sharon got the news. The Greek vacation they had planned to take would have to wait. The possibility it would never happen loomed large in the back of their minds.
Almost the minute that her husband was diagnosed, Sharon was on the Internet, digging out every bit of information about a particularly nasty cancer and quickly becoming her husband’s strongest advocate.
“You become a student of your illness,” said Clark, who lived in Montreal for 45 of his 59 years and in the U.S. for another 12.
A man with an amazing memory for dates, names and quotes, Clark describes in minute detail the long and tortuous odyssey of his disease that sent him on numerous trips to the National Institute of Cancer in Washington, to hospitals in New York City, Buffalo and to the Cleveland Clinic. He tracked down top Canadian oncology urologist Dr. Michael Jewett, who removed his kidney. Clark nearly died when his other kidney shut down, but dialysis saved his life.
His life has been a blur of medical appointments, trips to the U.S., blood tests, and long conversations with friends and family. His eldest daughter Devon also has cancer. They talk regularly.
A man of deep faith, Clark simply refused to believe the advice he was given from several doctors that he had an incurable condition and would die within a year.
“I don’t accept that,” was his standard response. One can only imagine the surprise of doctors at Cleveland Clinic reacted when Clark greeted their diagnosis with the comment, “God is bigger than cancer and He’s bigger than your hospital.”
With conventional medicine offering no hope, Clark turned to a naturopath in Milton and showed some improvement. Then he heard about a trial for a wonder drug by Bayer that was being tested for the first time on other types of cancer. Clark’s problem is that he has a gene, discovered in the year 2000, that has been found in only 114 families around the world, that triggered his kidney cancer.
He doubted that he could get into the trial as a result.
“Well, we need 3,000 people in the study and we don’t have 100 yet,” came the welcome response.
Not only did Clark not have to pay for the $5,000-a-month U.S. program, but when it ran out at the end of last year when the drug was approved by the USFDA, he was incredibly lucky that a similar pilot was just starting in Canada.
The results for Nexavar, as the drug is called, have been nothing short of miraculous.
No wonder he is such a strong believer.
Clark is still alive 13 months after he was given that year to live. Not only is there no sign of advancement in his cancer, but he is back playing golf and has even started doing a little bit of consulting work.
Listening to him talk about his work with his church, his efforts to assist outstanding Toronto jazz pianist Laila Biali’s career and his and Sharon's plans to take that postponed Greek holiday later this year, you realize Tony Clark doesn't have time to die.
“A lot of people just don’t believe they’re going to get better,” he says. “I believe God’s given me a ministry with this illness. Don’t give up. There’s always hope. God’s allowing me to use this illness to help other people.”
When most of us roll out of bed each day, we moan at the thought of what lies ahead, another day of work, shopping, getting the kids to karate, whatever.
“I wake up each day and say, thank-you God. I’ve got another day. People are just so busy that they’re not enjoying the journey. They’re just trying to get to the destination.”
The ultimate destination will be upon us soon enough.
Happy Father’s Day, Tony. The journey is lighter because of people like you.