Friendship - and Silliness - Play a Role in Cancer Survival

“Treasure your friends; cherish each day; be useful.”
-John Dillon

“Send me silly socks!” Stage director and former Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater John Dillon was facing seven weeks of radiation therapy. People were continually asking him, “What can we do?” Mr. Dillon decided that they could send him socks. Lots of them.

And send socks they did. Throughout treatment, he wore a different pair each day. All were silly, but each reminded him that someone cared. He referred to the immobilization mask he wore as his “helmet” and knighted himself the Cancer Warrior. He gave the radiation therapy linear accelerator a name and greeted it formally each morning. He molded the strange, clinical world around himself into one where he could wrest back some control.

The people involved in Mr. Dillon’s care were impressed, and told him so. I met him at a meeting focusing on the Quality of Cancer Survivorship where his positive approach and evident success more than qualified him as the keynote speaker. Even still, he talked of the difficulty of being a cancer patient 24 hours each day. “How did I do that?” he asked himself.

Vivian Bearing, the lead character in Margaret Edson's play “Wit,” is dying of ovarian cancer. She dryly reports to the audience “the attention was flattering ... for the first 5 minutes.” We require our patients to navigate through an unfamiliar, protracted, and frightening series of challenges. When you meet a survivor like John Dillon who copes by taking control, focusing on the present, and wearing outrageous socks, you take notice.

Bruce H. Campbell, MD, FACS
Interim Director
Froedtert & Medical College Cancer Center

"Reflections" is a collection of essays by the health professionals of the Medical College of Wisconsin.