Relay For Life Kickoff

On November 17, my public relations administration class is in charge of planning the Relay For Life Kickoff. Each year, feature stories are written about a person in the Milledgeville, Baldwin County area who have fought cancer or are battling it currently. This year, I did my story on Mr. Bill Kent, a car dealership owner in Milledgeville. The interviewing process and learning about the battles people face everyday made me excited about taking part in such a meaningful event. This is his story:

It was a cold day in January 2007 when Bill Kent heard, what he called, “the worst three words you ever could hear from a doctor: you have cancer.” After taking a routine blood test at his regular checkup, Bill’s doctor noticed that his Prostate-Specific Antigen, or PSA, level was high. His doctor scheduled a biopsy and sent Bill home unsure of his future.

Bill left his doctors office and went back to work to take his mind off of things. Usually, doctors do not begin checking men for prostate cancer until they are 50 years old. He was only 44 years old with three little girls, the youngest being three weeks old. Therefore, the words ‘PSA’ and ‘biopsy’ were the last words he expected to hear that day at his checkup.

A few days later, Bill went in for his biopsy. He and his wife waited anxiously for ten days until the doctor finally called him back in to discuss the results. Bill had an aggressive form of prostate cancer. While his wife “went to pieces,” Bill remembers that his initial response was, “Now what?” He learned as much as he could about the disease while several different doctors explained the treatment options to him and his wife. Luckily, chemotherapy and radiation were unnecessary. In April of that year, doctors at Emory Medical Center were able to remove the cancer, leaving Bill cancer free!

“Being diagnosed with cancer will make you realize how quickly life can change,” Bill said. “You feel indispensable and then realize you’re not. We had great support from our community, family and friends. They became more important than work and other material things that I cared about before.”

During recovery, Bill stayed busy handling work brought home to him by his office manager. He stayed at home for only two weeks before returning to work. However, things changed drastically upon his return. Before he was diagnosed with cancer, Bill owned six car dealerships in several different states. He spent most of his time traveling and even spent a lot of time at his home away from home in Knoxville, Tennessee. Having cancer made him realize how important it was to watch his children grow up. Therefore, Bill sold four of his dealerships and kept two, one in Milledgeville and the other nearby in Macon.

Every three months, Bill goes back to the doctor to make sure his cancer has not returned. In the meantime, he remains active playing several different sports, being a pilot on the side and spending time with the people who mean the most to him.

~Tori Cantrell~