Arnold Palmer's Fight Against Cancer Was Bigger than Himself
On Sunday, September 25, golfing legend Arnold Palmer died at the age of 87. According to his longtime agent, Alastair Johnston, Palmer died of complications from heart problems.
The date was February 22, 1997, and I was standing before a room full of familiar faces at Bay Hill Club making a few remarks after a dinner following a club function. I knew many of the people in the audience, and their applause as I stepped to the podium was especially enthusiastic.
"I'm here to tell you about prostates," I began. "You know … I don't have one."
Roars of laughter followed, and I chuckled myself. But the subject was deadly serious and that's no exaggeration. Only a month earlier I had undergone a procedure to have my prostate removed after biopsy tests revealed what PSA tests had indicated – I had cancer. There were several options available to me, but I was going to make a charge on my recovery by having the thing cut out. And then later I had to endure radiation therapy. As they often say, laughter is the best medicine.
Of course, I had to turn more serious in my remarks. "If you have a physical, you will want to have a PSA test done every year," I told the crowd. "Believe me, there's someone here that will be affected by this. It could save your life or save the way you like to enjoy your life."
As many people are well aware, you're never quite the same after you've received news of cancer in your life. Before I learned I had cancer, [my wife] Winnie and I had to endure the endless worrying about our daughter, Amy, and her own private hell of an ordeal. Fortunately, Amy underwent effective treatments, and today she is cancer free. But there was probably no day darker than the one 18 months after my cancer diagnosis. That was the day of my last radiation treatment – and on that same day we learned that Winnie had peritoneal carcinoma. Without a doubt that day was the hardest of my life.
The days and weeks that followed were unspeakably difficult. Winnie was the light of my life, my guiding light, the anchor of our family. Losing her just before the holidays in 1999, on Saturday, November 20, was an incredibly difficult time, though the outpouring of love and the tributes to her were heartening and reminded me all the more how many people she had impacted. Her memorial service at the Unity Chapel in Latrobe was a celebration of a life well lived and lived caring about others. I thanked those who came to pay their respects and tried to share what my years with Winnie meant to me. But I didn't have the words. To think that five days after our meeting, the elegant Winnie Walzer agreed to marry this glorified paint salesman says it all about her wonderful heart. My nickname for her was "Win," which could not have been more appropriate.
One of the most touching moments after losing Winnie was the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association creating an award in her honor to recognize an individual in golf who has consistently given his or her time, energy and enthusiasm to those less fortunate. The first recipient of the Winnie Palmer Award, announced the following June, was one of her dearest friends in the game – Barbara Nicklaus, which I thought was just wonderful, and I felt that Winnie would be as pleased as I was.
It was in October of the previous year that I had revealed to the public Winnie's battle with the disease – during a dinner in Pittsburgh for cancer survivors. As I said before, cancer changes you, and although I already had been involved in various charitable initiatives related to health and medicine, I took an increasing interest in cancer research. Winnie already had a long list of philanthropic interests, including the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Orlando, and soon I found myself immersed in many other projects. Today I am proud of the work we do at the Arnold Palmer Prostate Center at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Springs, California, and at Arnold Palmer Pavilion near Latrobe.
This is a fight that I will wage until my last breath.
On May 3, 2006, I joined leaders from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to announce a $2 million gift from the Arnold D. Palmer Charitable Trust to the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. I don't share this for any reason except to highlight how determined I have become in finding treatments for cancer, which is a widespread threat. At the time the National Cancer Institute estimated that more than 10 million people in the U.S. either have had cancer or are being treated for it. The burden of cancer reaches far into our communities and exacts an enormous toll – not just on the patients, but also on families, loved ones, friends and co-workers.
I am lucky to have survived cancer, but not so lucky to have not felt the sting of tremendous loss in my life due to the disease. This is a fight that I will wage until my last breath, for Winnie, for my family, for everyone who must confront this awful disease.
From A Life Well Played by Arnold Palmer. Copyright © 2016 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press, LLC.
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