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My journey to MD Anderson started nine years ago. My wife, Susan, and I were getting ready for a dinner party and I was shaving my neck when I felt a lump that was out of place. I had a bad cold so I thought perhaps it was a swollen gland but the lump didn't go away for a couple weeks.

I had it checked out and, long story short, that lump was a node that cancer had spread to from somewhere in my head, most likely in my neck. 

I was 45 years old and a very lucky person up until that moment in my life. I had a successful career, a beautiful family with three young children - and I was stage IV. 

This diagnosis was very confusing for me because I didn't think I had any of the classic risk factors of head and neck cancer. I never smoked, I didn't chew tobacco and I wasn't a heavy drinker. It turns out, in fact, I did have a very significant risk factor, a risk factor that probably 75-80% of people have: exposure to HPV. 

So I started my treatment in Houston. I would fly in from Los Angeles on Monday mornings and go directly to the radiation treatment center. In addition to daily radiation, I would also have chemotherapy once a week. And in between all of those sessions, I would find a quiet place, open up my laptop and do work. On Friday mornings, I'd have a radiation treatment and then fly back to Los Angeles to spend the weekend with my family. That was a tricky period of time for me and it lasted about seven weeks. The treatment was not difficult at first, however toward the end, it was really tough. And during those weeks at MD Anderson, I took a keen interest in what was happening to me - the biology, chemistry and physics of the treatment.

Even after my treatment, when I'd come to Houston for quarterly or semi-annual checkups, that interest continued in discussions with Dr. Sturgis. I would fly into Houston the day before my appointment and we'd have dinner and talk about HPV and its relationship to other cancers as well as head and neck cancer. I became fascinated with the idea that vaccines like Gardasil could be used, not to cure cancers but to stop them from ever developing in the first place. I was also amazed that less than half of young adults in America get the vaccine that would have allowed me and so many other people to avoid everything I went through.

So when it came to deciding how I could help MD Anderson - HPV became the target of my interest. 

My wife Susan and I worked with the Development Office to endow a chair for Viral Related Malignancies with a view to providing support to the HPV Moon Shot (approved in August 2015.) Since that time, I have participated in a number of MD Anderson HPV oriented meetings and events - most of which were aimed at public policy and awareness. I am also involved as a patient advocate for a SPORE for HPV-related diseases, which is fascinating. Most recently, I became a member of the MD Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors. 

I hope living 1,500 miles from Houston does not disadvantage my involvement with MD Anderson. Perhaps being a supporter and an advocate in California can be helpful as I do feel MD Anderson's footprint is global and the institution's impact spreads far beyond the city of Houston. 

Looking back, I remember that after I was diagnosed I felt the world had split in two. There was a world where people lived their normal lives and one where people were fighting for theirs. I came to MD Anderson ready to fight for my life and their help made my cancer history.