No Symptoms: 43-Year-Old Dad Shocked by Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis PKG

CLEVELAND - Tim Beckner still remembers the shock he felt after being told he had colorectal cancer last year.

“My oldest daughter just graduated from college. My youngest daughter just got done with kindergarten. She's starting T-ball, and I was supposed to help coach, and her very first practice is the day I find out I have cancer,” said Tim.

He said he would’ve never known something was wrong had he not gone to the hospital after getting sick on vacation. 

“What came back was that I had salmonella and a mild case of diverticulitis,” he added.

He was given antibiotics, which helped.

But his doctor thought it would be a good idea to get a colonoscopy too.

“Sometimes in a few percentage of patients, they have something else mimicking diverticulitis,” said AJ Keshinro, MD, colorectal surgeon at Cleveland Clinic. “My anticipation was that his colonoscopy was going to be normal because this was a young healthy guy without any symptoms. We go in and I find a mass on the right side of his colon.” 

Tim ended up having a third of his large intestine removed. 

Fortunately, he didn’t need any other treatment. 

Now, he’s back to doing what we loves most – being a dad. 

“I'm a dad. That's what I do. So, I can go enjoy just hanging out with them and hopefully get back on the golf course. That's my one goal for myself,” he said with a smile.