Advice From a Five-Time Cancer Survivor

Bill Potts, a five-time cancer survivor, likes to refer to himself as “the luckiest guy I know.”

“I’ve been fortunate enough to beat cancer five times,” he told CURE in an interview. “The journey started in 2002 — here we are in 2025 and I’m still talking about it, so I’m really fortunate.”

Potts was one of four individuals recognized by CURE during the 2025 Blood Cancer Heroes celebration, an event dedicated to honoring those who make a profound impact on people living with leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs)/myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The event was held in partnership with Blood Cancer United during the 2025 American Society of Hematology annual meeting in December.

CURE: What was your initial reaction when you found out you were nominated as a Blood Cancer Hero?

Potts: At first, surprise. I don't consider myself a hero at all. I consider all the others that are helping me stay alive the heroes still. To be nominated for it was really special.

What part of your work do you hope this nomination helps highlight for patients or families?

That the patient, when they're diagnosed, they need to own their journey. It's not the doctor's journey, it's your journey, which means you need to advocate for yourself, which means you really need to do your homework, and you really need to be on top of it. You need to treat it like your job. So the best advice that I can give patients is own it. And that means getting second opinions or third opinions or fourth opinions, whatever it is, and that you make the decision. The doctors can advise you, but at the end of the day, it's your life, so you need to be on top of it.

After facing cancer five times, what personal perspective do you bring to someone who is newly diagnosed?

It is infinitely scary. When you're diagnosed for the first time, your whole world stops. It starts to spin. It becomes really hard to think. And my advice is that's the point, to really catch your breath. I recommend that you don't talk about it with a lot of people, that you don't put it on social media, because you really need to get your heart and your head around the emotions of what you're dealing with. But that all has to happen pretty rapidly, because with cancer, you need to move pretty quickly. And so, once you get into that mindset of, “OK, this is what I have. This is what I need to do,” then you dive in, treat it like your job, and you start working the problem. And what really helps me with a lot of the stress, because I've been through this so many times, is really to put in the job mindset. I might stand outside the cancer center and be sick to my stomach and have a hard time walking in the door, but once I walk in the door, it really is the job mindset that I put on. It's my job to beat the cancer, it's my job to get better, and that really helps me reduce the stress and stay focused.

You talk often about self-advocacy. What is the most important thing a patient must advocate for early on?

You've got to get second opinions, no matter what. It's a mistake I made in 2002 I didn't get a second opinion, and I got lit up with so much radiation, most likely that's what's caused my second, third and fourth and fifth cancers. So, if you don't get that second opinion, you're making a big mistake. And also, I encourage patients to go to the large-volume cancer centers, and we're fortunate enough in the U.S. to have a lot of those. There are over 60 National Cancer Institute-accredited cancer centers. And the reason that those high-volume cancer centers have better outcomes is because they focus just on cancer. They've got the best equipment, they've got the best testing protocol. They're developing clinical trials. So, get a second opinion and then go to a high-volume cancer center.

What emotional challenges do survivors often face that aren't talked about enough?

It's hard to be a patient, and it's also really hard to be a survivor, as ironic as that sounds. In my particular case, I know my cancer is going to come back. So, day-to-day you're dealing with today, the day. And for me, that's been the case. One day I was fine, and the next day, I wake up and I can actually see the tumor, and I know my cancer is back. And so, your life gets turned upside down, and you don't know when it comes back, what the outcome is going to be. And so, that kind of emotional stress is a lot, and it can be hard to deal with.

And so, the way I deal with it is I do a lot of exercise, I make sure I eat right. I make sure I do the socialization. I make sure I live in the present, spend time with family and friends. I worry less about money. I worry less about a lot of things, because I have this unique perspective. I'm kind of like the colorblind person that gets those glasses on for the first time and all of a sudden you can see all the colors that you couldn't see before. Facing death has really taught me how to live, but there is a lot of emotion tied to that.

So, I don't really even like being called a survivor. I'd rather be called a cancer veteran. Yes, I've survived. I've been really fortunate. I've been surrounded by the best team that anybody could have, and that's awesome. But to be celebrated as a survivor sometimes bothers me, because there's people like me that maybe didn't survive, that did everything right as well, and so this is also the challenge that a five-time survivor deals with, is I've had people on all sides of me throughout this journey that didn't have the positive outcome that I did.

I think, as a cancer survivor, sometimes the mental and emotional part, it's harder than the physical part, and it starts piling up. You know, one time, OK, you celebrate two times. You're like, “Whew.” Then three, then four, then five, there's going to be a six, right? And, yeah, it adds up.

I think it strengthened my faith. Amazingly, in 2002 first diagnosis, the faith was pretty good. By the time I got to 2008, 2014, 2019, 2020 that faith was really strong, because what I realized is that God had put all the right people in my life for me to beat it.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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