Growing up in Columbia, Mark Giles was a star athlete at A.C. Flora High School. He played quarterback at Brigham Young University in the 1970s.
He and his wife Nancy founded the successful dance studio “Southern Strutt” in Irmo in 1982 where thousands of dancers have learned and perfected their moves. He’s a father of five and grandfather of eight.
And he thought he was invincible.
In fact, he didn’t go to a doctor for 25 years. He wasn’t having routine health screenings such as a colonoscopy - where a doctor inserts a lighted tube with a camera into the colon to look for abnormalities or polyps.
But this year, at the urging of a nurse practitioner at Lexington Family Practice Irmo, a Lexington Medical Center physician practice, he scheduled a colonoscopy. And the results changed his life.
Regular health screenings save lives, as Mark discovered. This month, Lexington Medical Center is urging all residents to learn what screenings they should have and when. Screenings often catch issues and disease soon enough to treat, and despite your, age, screenings can save your life.
Early Colon Cancer Screening Leads to Positive Outcome at Lexington Medical Center
Mark scheduled his colonoscopy, but never expected the outcome.
“When I woke up, they told me, ‘Mark, we found something that doesn’t look good,’” he said. “Immediately, my life changed. I began reflecting on everything in the past and how many people tried to tell me to take better care of myself and get the screenings done. You’ve got to listen to people who know what they’re talking about.”
Tests confirmed colon cancer, and Mark’s gastroenterologist sent him to Roland “Trey” Craft III, MD, FACS, at Lexington Surgery, a Lexington Medical Center physician practice. While Dr. Craft was optimistic about the surgery, he couldn’t promise the cancer had not spread beyond the colon.
“Before Nancy and I walked out, I told Dr. Craft I had a wonderful feeling about him. I really felt that the Lord had a hand in choosing who would be there to be my surgeon. It was a wonderful, peaceful feeling when I left that day,” Mark said.
Mark began thinking about the future, his life and the importance of regular medical checkups.
He received love and support from his “Strutt family” - the students who have taken lessons and performed through the dance studio he and his wife built.
The students put signs in his front yard and supportive posts on social media with the words, ‘We got you, Mr. Mark. You can do this.’
Inside an operating room at Lexington Medical Center, Dr. Craft removed more than 40 percent of Mark’s colon along with several lymph nodes to test for cancer. Everything went well.
“The doctor came in and said, ‘I have some super-duper news for you. You are showing no signs whatsoever of the cancer having escaped your colon.’”
Mark stayed at Lexington Medical Center for six days, where he called his care “top-notch.” He said the support of the medical teams, his wife and family helped get him through the cancer diagnosis and surgery.
“Mark’s decision to have a colonoscopy, while scary and inconvenient, gave us an opportunity to cure him of colon cancer. This screening tool significantly determined the positive outcome of Mark’s health event,” Dr. Craft said.
Nancy said the experience scared Mark tremendously, but ultimately left him with a strong sense of gratitude.
“He realizes it could have been a different story. He’s approved everything with a grateful heart and has become an advocate for testing and screenings,” she said. “He tells people to take their health seriously.”
And the couple’s five children – who are in their 30s and 40s – are now committed to having cancer screenings at the appropriate times.
Mark’s prognosis is good. It doesn’t appear he will need chemotherapy or radiation treatments. His goal now is to convince others it is never too late to schedule health screenings.
“I was one of those people who thought, ‘This will never happen to me.’ But it did happen to me,” he said. “I should have had the test years ago. It could have saved myself and my family a lot of pain.”
Doctor’s Dedication Leads to Life-Saving Lung Cancer Screening at Lexington Medical Center
Patti Morgenstern has smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 40 years. She admits it was more like four packs on some days.
And she doesn’t like going to the doctor.
When she developed bronchitis or pneumonia every year, a trip to urgent care got her back on her feet.
But at age 57, Patti decided it was time to be more proactive about her health. She was getting older and was the primary caretaker for her intellectually disabled younger brother.
“For him, I needed to take better care of myself. And I figured it would be easier if I had a primary care doctor.”
That’s when the Chester County resident made an appointment to see Thomas “Bo” Bryan, MD, at Lexington Family Practice White Knoll, a Lexington Medical Center physician practice.
“Because of my smoking, age and deferred maintenance, Dr. Bryan wanted me to get a lung cancer screening,” she said.
Lexington Medical Center’s lung cancer screening program is for people with a long history of smoking.
“The lung cancer screening is our opportunity to find these cancers early – long before they cause symptoms – and give us hope for curative treatment, often without chemotherapy and radiation,” Dr. Bryan said. “Like any cancer, the earlier the detection, the better the outcome.”
After a lot of persuasion from Dr. Bryan, Patti reluctantly agreed – but only because she thought she could prove to the doctor she didn’t have lung cancer.
According to Patti, people had been trying to convince her for years to stop smoking. “But I’m set in my ways,” she said.
Unfortunately, Patti’s lung cancer screening showed something she didn’t expect.
“People who know me said, ‘Something will happen and you’re going to quit.’ I guess that’s what happened.”
The screening detected a mass on her lung.
Dr. Bryan referred Patti to Carolina Pulmonary at Lexington Medical Center. Pulmonologist W. Shawn Ghent, MD, FCCP, said he wanted to have the mass removed and biopsied to see if it was cancer.
In January 2021, doctors at Lexington Medical Center removed the mass and some surrounding lymph nodes for testing. She learned that the tumor was malignant, but the lymph nodes did not show signs of cancer.
"Thankfully, the lesion was small, the screening process worked perfectly, and Patti should not need further treatment for this cancer,” Dr. Ghent said.
She had stage 1 lung cancer – the stage at which it’s most treatable.
“I told the doctor, ‘Man, you knew what you were talking about.’ He told me that some people put off lung cancer screenings until they’re at the point when all they can do is send them to hospice. In my case, it could have gone that way very quickly.”
But she’s been told if she starts smoking again, the tumor can come back.
Today, Patti credits Dr. Bryan and his encouragement to have a lung cancer screening with saving her life.
And when she ran out of cigarettes in January, she vowed to never buy any more for herself. To date, she hasn’t.
Lexington Medical Center’s Lung Cancer Screening Program Saves Lives
Smoking is the main risk factor for lung cancer, resulting in 85 to 90 percent of lung cancers. Each year, more people die from lung cancer than from breast, prostate and colon cancer combined.
What makes lung cancer so deadly is that it is usually detected late, when treatments are less likely to help. That’s why Lexington Medical Center offers a lung cancer screening program. Screening finds lung cancer earlier, when it’s at a lower stage and more likely treatable. To date, Lexington Medical Center has performed more than 2,000 lung cancer screenings.
People should also consider screening if they’re between the ages of 50 to 77, and a current or past smoker with a 20-year pack history and one or more additional risk factors.
For information about lung cancer screenings at Lexington Medical Center, call (803) 791-2461.
