Starting at the Finish Line

My Cancer Partner, Perspective and Preparation

“Our job is to be there when things are bad.” Matt Newman said this to financial planners on a daily basis as a wholesaler in the financial services industry. He constantly preached the need to plan in advance, to be prepared for the unexpected and inevitable.

As a young man in his late thirties, he lived a healthy lifestyle, had a beautiful family, and a successful career.  He practiced what he preached, and made sure he had a financial plan in place for his family. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction:

Life was about to change drastically.

After he began experiencing horrible headaches, insomnia, and strange speech issues, he realized something was very wrong. Four months into dealing with these issues, he finally went to the hospital; the doctors confirmed the worst; he had grade three astrocytoma.  Matt was diagnosed with brain cancer at 39 years old.

Luckily, he had someone to help him through every terrible moment. Matt’s own father-in-law Larry had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three years earlier. The two men found support in each other and their combined family as they worked to find normalcy in an abnormal situation.

Matt’s memoir chronicles the journey that his entire family and support group took together which got him to a place of clarity, understanding and appreciation.