Rick Alderson, a retired sawmill worker, was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer in November 2020. He endured agonizing pain in his bowels for months. After a consultation, a gastroenterologist discovered a large tumor in his rectum. Alderson and his wife were told that he only had six months to live.
Eve Alderson, Rick's wife, said that his oncologist saw him as "a dead man walking." Other doctors were against starting Alderson on treatment because of his age and the severity of his cancer, but the couple didn't want to give up.