Will's Spiritual Battle with Cancer

 On this special episode we joined by Will, who shares an intimate update on his cancer journey—his battle with throat cancer, the toll it has taken on his body, and the profound spiritual experiences he’s had along the way. Will recounts how his body and mind have struggled, the treatments he’s faced at the Mayo Clinic, and the decision to live life to the fullest despite the prognosis. They touch on Will’s near-death experiences, the spiritual strength he’s found, and how this illness has changed his perspective. Throughout, Will’s raw honesty and Julie’s deep empathy make this a powerful, moving conversation. 

Transcript

Okay. I just warned you, will. It was going to do that. The music cut off again. I love that music. I know, I know. Well, this is what's happening when. Neil. What's a new clock that's not standard and we lose our music in the 8:00 hour. And that's just how it goes. But you do have an amazing studio.

Yes, it is these new studios. I wish fever could see this. These are beautiful studios. Yeah. Well, thank you for joining us this morning. It's 807 on a Friday. It's May 30th or end of May, and it's the Neil Larson Show. But there's no Neil Larson is. Yeah. The studio sans Neil. He says he's helping a friend. Yeah, yeah, I think he's just gallivanting through the Canadian forest.

Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, there he is. He's goes the ramen rabbit hood and on. Yeah, his little bow and arrow. He sings Through the Tulips. Yeah. I just don't see Neil. That voice you're hearing is Will Kesley. It might sound a little different than the last time. Will and I did the show together. Yeah. And, Will has agreed to.

Come on, give everybody a cancer update. And with all of that, I'm sure you'll explain why. Why? Your voice sounds different right now. But first off, how are you feeling? This morning? You know, actually, in the last 2 or 3 weeks of hand, my best weeks have had less. You, is versus energy. Anyway, let's go through cancer news, the dreamers themselves and just finding it, horrendous on your energy in just a your body.

And so I was pretty much bedridden up until in the starting. But when my definitive his ignorance was in September, in a video about 2 or 3 weeks ago, I was pretty much bedridden. I mean, this is the severity of it, but I pretty much spent most of my time 90% of my time in bed just didn't have the energy.

And, in the last three weeks, we've been. Yeah, definitely in and doing things in the garage and late, you know, it's been it's something's changed that's for sure. It we're hoping it's for the positive. But I certainly have more energy than I've had. And that's the hope here. It is hard to say. And then those who've had terminal cancer and just know that you're dying, you know, you're slowly dying this disease and it do nothing to fight this.

But you hit, you can't get out of bed. So to get out of bed is a victory. It it really helps the the mind. And what are the interesting things Julie I've them remind battling with this cancer. This is my second battle with it than it ever did in my first one. This is more of a main problem.

I mean, I find myself, I think, for example, I eat through a feeding tube. I can't eat anything like it. Meaning we're now, but in this very little bit of time for some not enough nutrients for some of the good, that we're working on the eater feeding tube. But there came a time when it actually became anorexic and, you know, as a trainer and a counselor and a therapist.

And so I understand what it is to be anorexic. And I get to the point where I couldn't eat, I didn't want to eat, I couldn't even put my feeding tube in. Wow. The mind just was like, we're done, we're done. It's over. It's time to shut this machine down. And I said it first needs the rose. And I was fighting for my life in his my own mind and, and in the internet, trying to figure out how do I change that to accept that, you know, the healing in it was I started doing everything I loved in life is another airplane.

So I said, he has airplanes. I, you know, lives they took my children to. It's better for me. Everything that I loved in life, I thought any in the life that they they know it wasn't done. Time stood up. Yet I still have all these things I love doing to try to get the brain to turn off this idea that, well he's now terminal so let's just shut everything down.

But what was happening was my brain was shutting everything down with the with him killing me. It I could not eat. I couldn't even with eat it. Yeah. There is a clear connection between the physical body and the mental capability. No question. And I had no idea until this one how much my mind was playing a role in my overall ability to survive.

For those who don't know the previous cancer story, will you feel them in on the first cancer diagnosis that you got and then you beat it? Yeah. And then you got this second diagnosis of cancer. They're a little bit different. The two cancers are different at the same time of cancer. In the same area but different. So, eight years ago I was diagnosed with cancer in my throat.

You know, I never, smoked a drink, never any of those kind of things. And so it came to me as a horrible surprise. And going to the doctor, was it a sore throat that maybe I'd gotten strep throat or something? And they thought maybe it was just I had acid reflux. It was really my throat. And so we played around with it for a couple of months.

And then one day I said to him, there's no camera film in the earth. He said, who's my neighbor, by the way? Sent me an easy. And then Chris just came in. At least. Let's just see with it what it is. And he's like, you what the camera did. You threw the I'm brave. You can put a camera down my throat.

Well, you know, let's is go see, you know, and to my nightmare that started has been now eight years of, of some of the most horrific living I've ever had to endure. And so he went here another and came back and says, I don't know, but let's do a Cat scan. So we did a Cat scan, and then it was like, you know.

No. And that's when you're like, oh, we've got to, I don't knows. Which means you're probably leaning to something not so great. Yeah. So he did a biopsy and it woke up from the treatment from the surgery. And he said, you know, I'm so sorry I missed it, but you have cancer. And, that's just been a a years of very difficult time.

It was a difficult process to, treat that cancer. Yeah. Then you, and cancer, by the way, for whatever reason, really treated it. But, no, there's a specific reason. We treated it only with radiation. I chose personally not to do it. My wife and I chose that was in her best interest, virtually new chemotherapy. That was a spiritual experience for us.

And that's what the interesting thing about this, if you love yourself to have it when you're this sick, it is really the most special thing about being this sick has been how spiritually tender it has been. If you ever wonder if there's a good terminally ill inside, it's just how tender God is with you and people. They will even take it away from you.

I know I don't, I don't the internet. I came to this earth to experience it. Folks first experience become like my father in heaven. How could they not experience having first experienced those things? Yeah, he's already experienced this for you. If you're a Christian and you believe in the atonement, he's already experienced this. So simply come in, learn and become like him.

Why would they not be given this chance? Also to experience this? So they've not seen it as being a victim of anything? Quite frankly, I've seen it is a very unique opportunity to become a deity, and that's what's happened. And I won't go into that on this shift with you. But, there has been so many special things that I never dripped that ever happened to me, that have happened to me by being sick.

I've had a chance to touch the other side of the veil. You've spoken with me a lot. A lot about that. That during your first cancer diagnosis, you had a near-death experience, and it was it. It's shaped you. It's changed me forever. And even now it's. You can tell it's very emotional. It's it's because I'm having it happen again and again.

And I mean, this is very special experiences. And it made having cancer worth it is, is that sense. Right. And so I've seen people look, I don't get it and understand how you're doing that, but that's what I mean. Isn't it something I can endure? It's mean. Something very special is in those times when I was at the worst then times, but I mean him the most.

The times I just didn't have anything left in me. When you have these very special experiences that brought me back to, okay, I know God knows where, but I know he's with me during this. It's an experience that I chose to have. I need to go through it. So let's get at it. And it's kind of we're met with it.

All right. So you you had that first cancer diagnosis. Yeah. Some very difficult experiences with that. You chose not to do chemotherapy during that cancer diagnosis. You did radiation, which for those who haven't had a loved one go through radiation, it kind of turns all of the tissue and everything into tree bark. Yeah, it becomes very hard. Not pliable, little scratchy, little irritated.

The nerve endings are all wonky. Yeah, especially especially in cancer because it's a brainstem infection early. So they have about 30% saliva as you can feel there. So so thinking my ability to speak, it's overhearing. I mean, I say to my head, I've lost, my sinuses. I've lost. So there's an inherent radiation to the brain. And so I had several things.

And having to manage to go through it that you wouldn't even think was an issue. But it's like it's even Earth. And I got to do radiation twice. Oh, it's the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, and they have a proton beam. And it was just different enough that it didn't sit in a room in System Earth because you, your immune system recognizes the radiation thing.

Me and the sunshade don't look very well, right? Yeah, but I knew that. They said if I start getting a sunburn, my, my my immune system thinks I'm in radiation and I start getting sick again, I get radiation sickness all over again. Interesting. Even the sun can affect that radiation ripple. And it thinks, oh, we're radiation. And it started taking things.

It's really crazy. So I've been very fortunate to be able to do it again. But in the areas where the cancer was a little higher in my sinus, in my mouth and in my ears and things of that nature actually crossed over in my mouth. So my tongue in my throat in those areas got two different radiation treatments and they're not healing.

They don't know how to heal. But the radiation just damages them so much that they don't know how to heal. And so you have to learn to live with it okay. So tell us about what the cancer treatment looks like now. You've been down at the Mayo Clinic. Some people recognize the Mayo Clinic from, like, Minnesota.

This is actually in Arizona. It's an arm of the Mayo Clinic, and they're down there. You've had fantastic care, and cannot speak more highly of the male. Anyway, to speak about immunotherapy with you, you turned into a surgeon there. Doctor, everybody who was really my first person to get in to my ear and figure out what was going on.

And she was amazing. Absolutely amazing. But making it so difficult. I had to change gears, and I thought, I need to go to the meal. And so I was there waiting to see if you even get into the Mayo Clinic. And it was just before we even got in. But getting in there, the doctors there, the way they go about treatment is, very, very unique.

It first is hard to understand because every doctor is efficiency, like one area. So you have a doctor that really looks over you. Just when doctor does this it is a specialist. That's all he knows is that one thing. So I think seven doctors right now and none of them they meet like every day to talk about they care.

But with doctors in charge with you you're like, so who do I call? They need a prescription. Yeah. If it's not working so well, which one should I, bring you it. But the, the experts in that one area, very, very tight area willing to point out you actually had the first cancer and then entered into these years of, like, as number 16 in the county to get Covid.

I, I had an open heart surgery after Covid, Covid hit. We heard of it. And another thing I heard in a hit go hits like his surgery, they didn't have love surgery. I then had this infection that was from lung surgery, and it turned out to be this very rare, infection called inverted papilloma.

And that inverted a little bit. And they say this is. But we didn't do it at that time. It was attacking my left ear. And if you get a hearing into it like this, doing and training it in my brain and it lady station tube took out first my throat and then at another it switched into cancer. Wow.

It's a weird thing that thinking it was just this infection is typically very Petaluma. I'm like number 40 in the world. They have inverted. Petaluma. What's your queen trying to be an original air area tonight and I'm looking to. Good. But are you kidding me? You know, there's a whole story behind that. You know they won't get into it.

How to do it was coming, but I didn't know. Yeah, I was informed that I was going to have some very difficult times. Is of one of those very spiritual experiences regarding Cross the Veil. I was given the choice to come back, but I was told it was coming back to some tremendous trans tribulation. And so I admitted the choice and I chose to come back.

So when every one of these things came back to back to back to me, I just laughed. It was like, you can't make this stuff up now. And, and, and when you tell your life when the experience happens, here's what's coming. It's kind of like minute. I hope it does disco because it looks like a jet layer. Yeah.

You know, having that experience. But then when it starts happening, it really is a very special thing. Crazy that you'd have an angel come to you the middle of the day and kill you. You got to come back and you're going to do this. Well, you can either leave now work or you can come back. But if you want to come back, here's what's coming in.

In the to explain it to your wife. You look like took you. Right. You're killing this and I'm just a weirdo at this point in in worship. And by the way that happened before I was there for the first cancer that happened two months before as dangerous with anything. There was nothing wrong with me. Yeah. And so to have that experience and then that can be a big it's been overwhelming.

I think I just can't even express how much gratitude I have for you will how much, honor it's been to learn from you. And the honor is going to continue for me. I will continue to learn from you. I'm sure they're wanting to know. I've got two questions for you before we round this out. It is still a political talk show, and I'm sure that a lot of people are wondering, do you feel like Covid accelerated this second round of cancer here?

I think I have to question it heavily. Here's the question. You know, I didn't end up taking Moderna 1 or 2. I didn't do anything more past it. Is the time you remember a school in Ukraine? Yes. It tried to help refugees and try to help people with food, water, sheltering in the. And so I couldn't travel without doing the vaccinations.

I couldn't get on the plane to go help. And so it was it was kind of a gut wrenching decision. And I felt like I needed to go help the people in Ukraine. And so if the if the vaccination turned out to be horrible, like accepted, it, it looks like it was horrible. I don't know that for a fact, but I do know following that, I immediately had to have open heart surgery because we went from zero and we know it was zero because just a few months before and it seems for dinner hurt heart.

I was watching it because I had heart disease in my family and I had hardly any, any blockage whatsoever. After I did the Covid vaccination. Six months later, I was completely broke in two arteries and another in a third. It had to go in for what was pretty much emergency. I mean, I was told not to move very much.

As soon as they could open up the surgical room, they can get me in. And if every so I don't want to go with a conspiracy. Yeah. I don't know how I do it. Yeah, I think a lot of people would agree with you on that. I have to believe that it did something, particularly when you look at when it was, it's very rare thankfully really Petaluma that normally seen.

Yeah. They came out of nowhere and it was only being based in New as due to what probably the Covid only the Covid vaccination did something to my mind system. But from that immune shot I had that I had open heart surgery, I hit I mean, I had all these things come on board. It was a cascade of negative things, but I don't I don't regret doing it.

I still in grateful for the five times that with Ukraine. I'm so grateful for the people I met there. You know, I don't try to get to the political side of the Ukraine conversation and look at the humanity side of it. Yeah, and I can't wait for it because I've been on the grid. I've been chilled. They've threatened to kill me twice.

Well, I've been there. I just this taste was happening there. It's just running so many ways that one guy indicator can say he's going to ruin the lives of millions and millions of people. It's just wrong. In today's society, it is wrong. Okay? You've got about it. We've got about a minute and a half left. Tell me, where do you go from here?

Where am I right now? Well, they told me I'm terminal.

Go ahead and feel your emotions. I'm going to tell everyone how brave Will has been through this. He's been amazing, and I appreciate that you're fighting this head on. Even with them talking to you like that. I hate saying that word. Yeah. And so I say, because in earnest, they said it to me many honestly, it scares me and I know that I know it.

Believe and anything don't believe them. I think they have it wrong. I think they've seen what's the reason they're telling me I'm terminal. I think it's probably all the kids are coming through in a little bit more coming in a few weeks. They go back for their Pet scan and and they want me to start treatment. And I'm just that ready to do that, you know, feel I have the strength to do it.

And, I don't feel it's right spiritually. I don't feel it's right to do it. So I'm going to take a day at a time. I'm going enjoy life and live life to its fullest. Understanding that that may happen, that others see. My heart hurts and things happening that way. I love your attitude. Well, it scares me honestly, but something spiritually kills me.

I'm going in October and that's when it's supposed to of him again, I, I honestly don't and I hope in November and come back to me on this show in December sitting in. Yeah, let's have a heck of a Thanksgiving celebration in November. And so they want me to go into treatment. They think they can stay in my life.

Help me look in right now. I'm ready to go do that. They will do more chemotherapy. It just does it feel right to me. So it's so I'm going to they're going to have to do some heavy convincing. They won't do immunotherapy and they do that. We'll see. But right now anything in life is isn't going to be good in six months.

And I'm learning to just love everybody around me and look at life as if I was doing the Tim McGraw song An Innocent Gift. A gift to look at life is, if you like. I took my for granted. You know, I ran full steam and never realized that someday would come to an end. And so everything's different for me right now.

Everything's more beautiful. Earnestly, I, I love deeper, I still love deeper. My relationships are deeper. Everything special is happening because I have cancer. No regrets, no regrets. We have so much to learn from. You will. Thank you. I think there's a lot of people who would have been intimidated by coming on while you're in the middle of this, and I am so incredibly grateful for you.

Like I said, it's an honor to learn from you. Thank you. It's been an honor. You were an integral part. I'm going to get emotional here. You are an integral part of getting me and Neil to this station. Yeah, and I love it. And and thank you for sharing your love. And with me. You've been incredibly positive with me.

And I love everything about you and Neil. And be grateful for you and grateful for your friendship. I know I'm a better person well, having you in my life. Thank you. Okay, we'll shed these tears and get going. We've got a big sing coming up next. We're going to be joined for studio four covers by Mountain Strings bluegrass.

Going to hear a little bit of banjo, a little bit of fiddle, and we'll celebrate life along with Mountain Strings. Bluegrass on Newstalk 179.