Dan Simbro has a contagious sense of humor.

Ask him how many grandchildren he has and Dan will tell you “a bunch” because he’s afraid to give an exact number and forget someone.

In the days before Easter 2022, at age 68, Dan dressed up in a bright pink bunny suit and passed out candy in public.

“That’s the kind of guy I am. I’m not quite right,” he exclaims with a hearty laugh.

Dan stopped laughing in late December 2021 when he found a lump on the right side of his neck.

“I’ve never been sick,” he said. “In fact, my primary care doctor retired two or three years ago and I didn’t get another one.”

Dan did see a doctor about the lump, though. It was a good move. He had tongue cancer.

“I thought this was my last Christmas,” Dan said.

“He has a wonderful sense of humor but he was scared. He was very scared,” said his wife of 27 years, Diane.

A resident of Monroe City, MO, Dan had surgery in St. Louis to remove the cancer from his tongue and to remove the lymph nodes on both sides of his neck. Three lymph nodes from the right side of his neck were cancerous while all lymph nodes on the left were non-cancerous.

Dan’s surgeon recommended he have radiation therapy to help reduce the risk any cancer cells survived surgery and told him research showed he needed radiation therapy to the right side of his neck only, not both sides. That would reduce long-term complications.

Dan liked that idea but had trouble finding a provider who would agree to it.

“We were ready to get a camper and camp out in St. Louis to get the radiation treatments there,” Diane said.

Before that drastic move, Diane suggested Dan contact the Blessing Cancer Center.

“I emailed over here (Blessing Cancer Center Radiation Oncology) on a weekend,” Dan said.

“They called me back Monday morning. I was here seeing Dr. Johnson Tuesday I think, and treatment began like a week later. Boom, boom, they were right on it. It’s like they took 500 pounds off my shoulders.”

Blessing board certified radiation oncologist, Dr. Robert Johnson, consulted with Dan’s surgeon and agreed with the recommendation and research  - with the tongue cancer removed and no cancer in the lymph nodes on the left side, radiation therapy was needed on the right side of his neck only.

The Blessing Cancer Center Radiation Oncology department is one of only four in the three-state region of Illinois and Iowa - and none in Missouri - to hold American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO) accreditation, ensuring the highest quality care for the radiation therapy patient. The department - with its state-of-the-art equipment and skilled staff of board-certified radiation oncologists, a medical physicist and two dosimetrists, radiation therapists and nurses - has held this prestigious accreditation continuously since 2001.

Not only did Dan find the care he needed at Blessing, he found a team of experienced caregivers he loved.

“Everybody I have dealt with here has been wonderful,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to be taken care of here.”

“Between all of them, they have taken such good care of him,” Diane added. “They have taken him from a very scary place to feeling very comfortable that everything is going to be okay.”

It wasn’t long before Dan’s sense of humor returned.

“They told me I could have a normal life after this,” he said. “I never had one before so I don’t know how that will happen!”

By the way, Diane says she and Dan have 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.