The Bell: A Viral Journey to Conquering Cancer

It started—as these stories so often do—with fatigue. At first, Jace Yawnick simply chalked it up to a busy life and a job requiring frequent travel. But then he noticed something: There were times the fatigue kicked in when he hadn’t just gotten off a plane or done anything else particularly strenuous. “Intuitively,” Jace says, “something within me just knew something wasn’t right.”  Then came the coughing and the back pain. It would be months—and more than one misdiagnosis—before doctors found the problem: Hodgkin lymphoma. As he processed the news of his diagnosis, Jace realized something: Facing cancer was not something he wanted to do by himself.    And so, when he started to chronicle his cancer experience online, he was simply looking for catharsis and camaraderie. He got both—along with a community of 700,000-plus followers who’ve followed his entire journey in hopes of seeing the moment he fulfilled a cherished goal: to ring the bell and declare himself cancer-free. In this episode, Jace talks to Your Stories host Dr. Mark Lewis about what it’s like to share your cancer journey with thousands of people, the importance of advocating for yourself, and the role of community when it comes to conquering cancer.