The diagnosis of a singer’s language cancer interrupted his career. Now he has returned to his passion and helps others.
The singer and musician Roger Blanvins Jr. has a tour of the country and the world with his group, Mingo Fishtrap, for three decades – until he receives a diagnosis of language cancer that changes his life in 2022.
His wife, Valerie Blanvins, said that they both cried after receiving the news, “then we stopped crying and that we got into business.”
The surgeons removed most of the Blanvins tongue and used fabrics from its thigh to rebuild a flap, allowing it to eat and speak again.
“So most of my language … is white. All this is part of my leg. I don’t have control of this,” said Blanvins.
He had to learn to speak again and said that he had locked himself in the bathroom and had recorded practicing sounds and sentences.
“It is really difficult to speak physically differently from what you have been for five decades,” said Blanvins. “The song was the center … of my rehabilitation.”
Return to singing
By singing with a towel in hand to catch the drool left by surgeries, Blanvins returned to the church, a place that has always anchored it. His voice was not so strong, but his passion was there, and over time, the strength returned.
“I had each stage,” said Blanvins, assigning his medical team to the Texas University Cancer Center MD Anderson in Houston. “They took into account what I did in life … which is incredible in itself, but a little of me is a bit proud to wear their work.”
While Blanvins remains a patient at MD Anderson, he has taken another step: a full year of clear screening or NED (no evidence of illness).
“They saved my life, but they also saved my love,” he said.
A year later, Valerie Blanvins said that her husband’s song rings almost better.
“It’s like a sliding scale because it has always been really, really good,” she said. “I mean, we said” grateful “again and again.”
In August, Blanvins went on stage for his first show in ticket from surgeries at the 04 center in Austin, Texas.
Help families fight cancer
From the fight against Blanvins cancer has come a new mission: to help other families fight against cancer. The Blanvins launched the non -profit association “The Tough Crowd Project”.
On its website, the non -profit organization stipulates that it “is committed to raising funds and raising awareness among organizations offering financial assistance, access to services and other supporters to cancer patients, survivors and their families”.
“I think of every child I saw there with cancer,” said Blanvins. “All the people you meet, the other patients and their families … They are all part of your trip and your history too.”
