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Person of Interest:
full marathon (26.2 miles).
“I had a fantastic, awesome experience,” he said. “Doing triathlons
has changed my life. I love it. It’s a
lot of fun and you meet a lot of neat
people, and it makes you feel really
good when you hit the finish line.”
But Dick has faced an even
bigger challenge in his life – prostate cancer. His father fought the
disease for 17 years. Because of this
family history, Dick knew he had to
be checked earlier than the recommended age of 50 years.
“I did fine for a few years,” he
said. “When my father passed away,
then it was time for me to go back
and look at what we were dealing
with.” He had a biopsy that showed
he had prostate cancer. He had a
prostatectomy and is still taking
radiation treatments. He remains
optimistic about his prognosis.
“I’m 58 years old and I feel like
I’m in really good shape for the
most part, but there are side effects
of having your prostate removed
that you have to deal with,” he said.
After sharing his story publicly,
Dick has become an ambassador of
sorts for other men facing prostate
cancer.
“Once every few weeks, once a
month, I’ll hear from a man who’s
just found out he has prostate
cancer and wants to know what I
did,” he said. “I generally tell them
everybody’s on their own journey
in this. There’s not one single way
to treat it; everybody’s a little bit
different. It depends on your age,
Sam Dick
Local news anchor is a triathlete,
cancer survivor
by Tanya J. Tyler,
Editor
Sam Dick could
very well be the
poster person for
what it’s like to be Living Well 5