Ep 024: Nolan Thomas: What Happened After Everything Changed, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, start there.

After being told he was cancer-free, Nolan Thomas began planning what life would look like next.

Everything changed again.

His cancer returned and progressed to Stage 4.

What followed was not just another round of treatment, but a complete shift in mindset, identity, and faith.

In Part 2, Nolan shares what it looks like to keep going in the middle of uncertainty, how his perspective has changed, and why he chose to speak publicly about his experience.

In this episode, we talk about:
 • Hearing that his cancer had returned
 • The emotional weight of starting over again
 • How he approaches life and relationships differently
 • What changed in his mindset the second time
 • The video where he first shared his story publicly 
 • Why he started his own podcast during treatment
 • The importance of advocating for yourself
 • The message he wants people to walk away with

Nolan’s story is honest, raw, and still unfolding.

If someone keeps coming to mind while you’re listening, share this episode with them. It could make more of an impact than you realize.

Follow Nolan and support his journey:
Instagram: @kidxnolan

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/nolans-heroes-help-him-take-on-the-villain-of-cancer/donations

Podcast: Cancer Boy by Nolan Thomas (Spotify & YouTube)
YouTube: @cancer_boy

Every life has a story worth telling. Follow Unspoken Lives Podcast on your favorite podcast app and join the conversation. Visit unspokenlivespodcast.com and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

You're tuning in to part two of this conversation. If you haven't heard part one yet, I encourage you to pause and start there first. Let's jump back in. Welcome to Unspoken Lives, the podcast that uncovers the powerful, untold stories of everyday people. The real stories you don't always hear, but ones that deserve to be told. I'm your host, Kelsey Billingsley. In each episode, we'll explore journeys of growth, resilience, and transformation, conversations with guests who have faced challenges, embraced change, and discovered new purpose along the way. Through their stories, you'll find inspiration, hope, and a reminder that every life has a story worth telling. Let's dive into this next unspoken life. So I think I've shared with you the whole idea behind my podcast is basically that there's people we walk around and see every day that have these hidden stories that we don't know about, whether it's something horrible they're going through or even something positive. So that makes me think of what you're sharing, you know, this perception on life where other people may have their life in shambles. What would you tell the people or tell people basically to look at the people around them and you know what advice would you give to, I guess bring more humanity to life instead of just being so surface level?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Honestly, I'd probably take a step back, is what I'd probably say. Cause like I've noticed a lot of anger is sent out to other people that they don't mean to give out.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

I've done this like to my mom because she's with me all the time. So we get at each other's nets uh next, but she's kind of the one that showed me it. She like knows what I'm going through. She'll let me kind of get away with a lot. But at the end of the day, you know, it's not that important. And like I said, I could be doing a lot worse. I just kind of take a step back and look at it. Like, okay, yeah, it's not that serious. You know, tomorrow's still gonna come. And it could they could say something worse the next day or something better the next day, but like what they're going through, I don't really know. So yeah, that's what I just take a step back.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Yeah, that's good advice. The next question I was gonna ask you is you mentioned you went to the hospital the first few times and basically were just told you're young, you're fine. I think advocacy for yourself is really important. So, what would you say to anyone who, you know, maybe has symptoms that aren't being taken seriously? Like if if you could go back and face that a little differently, what would you tell people?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Definitely second opinions, even if it's out of the way, like things could be super serious. And I wish I took my physical health a lot more serious at that time, even though it was like less than a week that I like and you're so young. Yeah, and I was so young, so I mean, what what could have been? But I wish I got a second opinion sooner. I don't know how bad a couple of days could have been, but since I had an emergency surgery, it could have it could have helped.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

Yeah. We talked about how this journey has kind of changed you, but what going through all of this has it revealed to you about yourself that you didn't realize before you had to go through this journey?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

I that I'm like super determined to live a normal-ish life like as much as possible. I just I don't want to be like an everyday Joe Blo guy. Right. But like that would be nice. And so I really found out how determined I am to live a good life, regardless of what I'm told and what's given to me through sickness, or I'm probably like the most determined I've ever figured I could be.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

So now, what are some of your hopes and dreams? I know you mentioned firefighter, but what are some of the other things?

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Yeah, I've always wanted to live alone in an apartment, like just to experience that type of thing. I it's always been a dream of mine. As soon as I'm cancer free, I'm getting an apartment. I still want to be a firefighter, wireland firefighting, and then I'm also real estate getting I'm getting into real estate. And then the gym. I need to get back to my fitness grind. Yeah. When you're allowed to. Yeah, yeah. I have this whole like idea of like what my life's gonna look like when I'm out of like done with cancer. But I am building a new dream, like doing that podcast and yeah, wanting to start the uh the nonprofit is kind of like my new goal.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

And it's kind of like a realistic but unrealistic type of goal.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

It's really good.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

I just gotta I gotta I gotta put in a lot of work for it though.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Yeah. What kind of feedback have you gotten from both that video you posted and then your podcast so far?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

I've gotten probably 99% good feedback.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

That's great. Um I don't know who that one percent is, but ignore that one.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, it's surprising. Having cancer, you still get haters. I don't understand that. Yeah, it's weird, but but it's like doesn't bother me as much as other things could be bothering me, but but that 99% really like opening my eyes and making me feel like like I'm heard. That's the one thing I hated like going through treatment the first time. I didn't feel like people heard how I felt and heard me, and yeah, the videos are like showing that people care.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Yeah, yeah, people do care. I mean, I didn't even know you, and then I watched the whole video. Yeah. So people care, people want to hear about it, whether they're going through it or maybe they have a family member going through it. I'm sure all of it is very helpful to help them get through it. I know a big part of your video was talking about what you want other people to know, whether it's going through a diagnosis or is there something specific you want to share about that?

SPEAKER_01 5:53

When you're getting diagnosed, I want to share that like, oh, it's probably gonna be bad. Like what you hear might not be what you want to hear. At the end of the day, there's ways, like I'm not saying you will get better because not everyone can, but there are ways to cope with the news because of me, like you know, like accepting death now. I'm really like keen to looking at like suicide prevention stuff, just because I knew how I felt. Yeah. So I don't I just want them to know, like, oh, there's no per like that's not a permanent lifestyle. There's right solutions besides a permanent solution.

SPEAKER_03 6:25

Mm-hmm. Obviously, we talked about accepting death. I feel like even though you've moved to a more positive mental state, I feel like still having that mindset of like, you know, at one point death is coming for all of us. So I'm assuming that changes how you're living your life today. Um what what kind of things change with that?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

I've learned that your quality of life really matters, even if it's little things like emotional or you not sticking up for yourself, or so I've learned to respect myself, I've learned to take better care of myself. I've always eaten healthy, I've always drank healthy. So that aspect never really changed, but really like sticking up for myself and making sure that I still feel good, that like that matters. Your your emotions really matter.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

So I've I've tried changing the way I I look at life, I how I look at how the how they're feeling, and then they'll go upon you one day. It's not that serious. So I've learned to turn the other cheek a lot.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

What do you want people to know about you outside of the cancer diagnosis, outside of everything you've going through? Like who Nolan is? What would you want people to know?

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I'd want them to know that I'm still a guy, you know. I'm I'm not as strong as I used to be, but like talking about normal things besides just cancer is like that's what I would love to do.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Like hunting?

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Like hunting, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

Hunting soccer or soccer.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

I mean, real estate, I can try to talk to you about it, but I'm not the smartest on either um learning. Yep, I'm I'm still learning a lot.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you're 21, there's still a lot to learn, I'm sure. Okay, so I've gone through a lot of my questions. This is for you. I want you to be able to share what you want to share. So is there anything I haven't asked you that you want to say to whoever's listening?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

I guess I could educate a little on, you know, like the difference between the stages because a lot of people don't know that would be good. Like stage one, two, three, four, you know, the cancers because that one person that I talked to you about, you know, the haters call me a liar or ignorant of cancer. It was they were like not believing that once the main tumor is gone that it can't regrow. So I just want to say cancer is considered like like a tree, and when you remove the the tree, you know, the roots are still there. Um that's a really good way of looking at it. If the roots are still there, it can still grow back unlike a tree. Stage one, it's just a little tumor, and the stage two is when it grows. Okay. Stage three is once it's it's starting to spread, like it hits the lymph nodes.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

And then stage four is when it a new tumor or the cancer spreads to other organs.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

A lot of people have asked me that.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Yeah. Now, you shared about when you were at stage three, what type of cancer and everything. Stage four, was it you said a tumor grew.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Was it the same location, a different organ, or so that one I'm a little confused about still. I try not to focus like obviously knowing my own cancer is important, but I don't know too much about it because I don't want to upset myself. Yep. And my parents told me not to not to do the research because if they if I found out what they knew, that would really devastate me.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Smart parents.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

So I uh I'm so sorry. I brain farted the question again.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Fine. Um, I just you mentioned a tumor grew for stage four, so I didn't know if that was since you talked through the stages, I didn't know if it was the same.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

But if you don't want to talk about this, I know I know I have more than one tumor. One grew on my spine uh near the aorta, which is you know like one of the main set of arteries.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

So it grew there, and then they also said there's more cancer spread out through my body, but they didn't necessarily say where. All I know is it's in my core area. Okay. And they're worried that it's gonna be moving up in my body. What I do know of is for two tumors and the cancer spread out throughout somewhere, but they really didn't tell me where.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

Well, I think that's helpful for anyone listening that wants to pray for you and know specifically how to pray. I just want to say I'm so sorry you're going through all of this. I know I mentioned that earlier, but thinking back to when I was 21, I don't know how I would have handled this. And seeing you sitting across, you know, on a camera, sitting across from me, speaking about this just so clearly and wanting to help other people, it's really inspirational. So I think you're I don't know if it's hard for you to share. You don't make it look like it's hard. I feel like for most people it would be hard to share, but you're making it seem easy somehow, which is strange.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

I like talking about this just because like I've been in my head about it all for for a long time, you know, when I was diagnosed, and then so funny when I was stage four, I was in my head about a lot and didn't share too much. Yeah, so it's like a bubble that was just ready to pop. Like I'm ready to talk about all this. So it it actually feels good to talk about this.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

So you you went on a journey. I didn't, I clearly didn't speak to you at the beginning of the journey. So I'm seeing the growth you've had now at this stage of your journey to be able to to share about it. And I think the other thing that really stands out to me is like your your symptoms you were having, like blood in the urine, you know, stuff like that. Like people get it checked out, you know, don't just think it's normal and get that second opinion. I think that's very important. So what would you say to to any family members out there? Maybe they have a child going through something. Uh, what would you say to them that could be helpful for them to work through it?

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Like I said, you know, as someone who has cancer, I don't see I mean I I see a lot and I see how it affects my family, but I don't know what it is like for them and I can't imagine that. But from what I have seen, what I will say is, you know, that there's there's a lot of other family like other people going through similar things or different things, but their child is still going through it in that aspect. I want them to know that they're not alone, and even even through like the hard times, like the little moments still really matter. Yeah, you you can't just ignore those little like road trips or those little arguments, like those matter. So like you gotta like not take advantage of those moments.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Yeah. I spoke to someone a couple of weeks ago who went through something really awful, but she had told me during that time there were still moments of joy, like someone you know saying something silly or something funny happening, and even through like the midst of all that pain, you look back and you can see those tiny little moments of laughter or fun. Have you experienced that as well?

SPEAKER_01 13:00

I have. I've experienced like a lot of heartful, heartwarming moments of like people finding out, you know, like about my sickness, and then they they show like their love or or those little moments, you know, like just a road trip. I I people watch and I get to see what others do, and I'll notice that you know my my family will people watch too. Yeah, and like those little moments where we like catch each other seeing the same thing, that's really that's really funny. A big thing I should have mentioned actually, it's little to some people, like it's big for me. Right. I actually kept it out just for this moment, just in case. Um I'll get mail from people throughout the world. Yeah, it's mainly in the US, but like churches have been sending me stuff. Oh and I've been getting drawings from like children's oh my gosh. I haven't looked through this at all yet, yeah, but I just held it out just to show.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

How did they find out? I think my mom had posted about it on Facebook, and a lot of churches throughout the first couple like month-to-mine diagnosis, yeah, would like pray for me. And then I started to receiving mail after stage four because my mom said I like postcards. Oh and I started getting postcards from a lot of uh fly descendants and now churches are sending me stuff.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

How do they like if somebody listening wanted to send you a postcard, how would they figure out how to do that? I don't want to blast your address, but what would be the best way?

SPEAKER_01 14:35

I think I think it's best if I just get a message that they want to send me something. Okay, and then and then after I, you know, do my little stocking and make sure they're safe. Yeah, you just I've actually gotten a message that someone wanted to send me something, and I don't want to just I don't have a P.O. box, so I don't want to blast yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

You just never know. Yeah. That's really, really sweet. I love those drawings. I hope that gives you encouragement that people are praying and and care for you.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Yeah, yeah. That's very sweet. That's actually one of the main things that started making me like notice that I people actually care throughout the community.

SPEAKER_03 15:13

Yeah. And just shows your mom's love to be able to put that together and and make it happen also. That's very sweet. Is there anything else that you want to share? Um, I want to make sure I hit on everything you want to cover.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Honestly, I think I think I've shared everything that I wanted to share.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

Okay, good. Well, um I want you to know I'm gonna be praying for you. I know this is our first video meeting, but I still know a lot of people in Sierra Vista in my hometown, and I'll share with them also. And you know, if there's ever anything you need or want me to to share with people that are listening to this podcast, because I'm hoping to get your story out there, uh, just let me know because I want you to know you're supported by people who have never met you.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Thank you. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Yeah. And you're not alone going through this. I know I know you probably felt, you know, that those first six months went through that, but I'm glad to see your your mindsets better. So yeah, and I know you like sharing this, but I also want to say it takes a ton of courage to get through sharing that and speaking about it. So I hope you're proud of yourself.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

I am. I'm yeah, yeah. I've never really told myself I'm proud of myself, but I've I've been thinking about it a lot.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

And yeah, yeah, I'm doing I'm doing pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Good. And you're making a difference.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yep, thank you. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Speaking of that, what were you nervous to share that first video?

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah, yeah. I get a little embarrassed like telling everyone about it and my friends watching it, just because it's like a side of me that they might not have seen.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

And it's me being probably like the most vulnerable I've ever been. Because, you know, I'm a guy, you know, I'm supposed to be holding feelings back, but like, but not really. So I've kind of forced myself just to post that.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Because I wanted, I wanted to talk about it, but I was nervous, it was really nervous.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

I'm sure. Sometimes I think it's harder to share things with people you know, like even me doing this podcast. I I would rather share it with 500 people that I've never met because you don't you've I don't know, you almost have imposter syndrome or feel like the people closest to you expect you to be a certain way and then see this whole different side. So keep posting it. I know people want to to hear updates and see how you're doing it. I I know it encourages them and gives them, you know, information on how to pray for you and and keep you in mind. So please keep us updated.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yep, I will. Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much. Again, I'm sorry you're going through this, but thank you for taking the time to share the story and be vulnerable and yeah, just share what's on your mind.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

No, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

That's it for this episode of Unspoken Lives. If today's story moved you, inspired you, or made you reflect on your own journey, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss the next powerful conversation. I'm always on the lookout for new guests. If you know someone with a story that deserves to be shared, I'd love to hear from you. Check the show notes for contact details and make sure to follow along on social media at Unspoken Lives Podcast. Until next time, keep listening, keep sharing, and remember, every life has a story worth telling.