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Kentucky Football GM Pete Nochta: Stage 4 Cancer Was the Best Thing That Happened to Me · CBN Sports 1-ON-1

• CBNS019 Nochta, Pete: Welcome to CBN Sports One on One, where you'll hear exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in sports right here on the CBN Sports Podcast Network. I'm your host, Will Dawson. If you're like most of us and you love sports, but you're tired of the dark side of sports culture, me-focused athletes, or even organizations that bow to an unbiblical belief system, we think you're gonna love this podcast. There's no yelling, no sensationalism, just great conversations with athletes and coaches. Who recognize that their purpose is bigger than their score. Well, the Kentucky Football Wildcats are off to their best SEC start almost 50 years. Part of that is their new head coach. Part of it is a new quarterback and a new system and just a new revitalization over what's happening. Part of it is their general manager, Pete Nocta. Now, Pete played football for rival Louisville Cardinals several years ago, but it was After his playing career and into his front office role with Louisville, that he discovered that he had stage four non-Hodgkins lymphoma. During this interview, you're going to hear Pete talk about the struggle that was and also how his diagnosis led him to a closer relationship with Christ. Let's jump right in. So, Pete, growing up, I know that football was a huge part of your life. It was probably just about everything in your life. How important was it and how much did you love playing football as a young kid? I grew up the son of a a high school football coach. my dad played here at Kentucky. So I grew up here in Lexington and I was a product of of of that. And so, you know, this this city, this community really embodies Kentucky football and Kentucky athletics in in in general. And so it was very cool to grow up one proud knowing that my dad was a part of something special like this. and then wanting to be a part of it one day was something that I always dreamed about. And, you know, like I was telling you earlier, I I was a a ball boy when I was a kid. So it was stuff that I got to really, you know, grow up and be around. but yeah, football is is been great to me. It's been great to my family. We you know, in football it it you can do so much and you can work your butt off, but it doesn't necessarily always equate to on field success. And so it's important to just you know, grow up with mental discipline, grow up with you know, just a toughness about how you approach things and how you you you get better and you attack and and you you know, you have some losses, you have some wins, but the response is is what's most important. And so just growing up with that discipline and and having a a dad that really poured it that into me, not only was he great from a you know, just hold me accountable standpoint and loving on me, but the football side and just training right from wrong was always something that I really value as I get older. When you were growing up, were there were there moments in your life that that stood out that made you think this is something that I wanna do for the rest of my life? Yeah, so again, my dad coached for a long time. When I was a sixth grader I went to Bryan Station Middle School. He was the head coach at Bryan Station High School. went to the state championship and and had so much pride in that and just being a part of something special. And we weren't a team that had a bunch of toys. We had, you know, a small group of guys. I think we had forty six guys on our team. I say ours. I was a sixth grader. I was just the ball boy, but yes, ours. and, you know, we played state championship game against St. Xavier and they had I think 47 seniors. So it was kind of intimidating to see, but you just see a group of guys band together and the beautiful thing I thought about football was here I am, you know, you're surrounded by guys that are not like you and it's not like any other sport where you can pay your way in. Like the best players are going to play. And the people who earn it are going to earn it. And the toughest are going to play. And so something that I always thought was very admirable was just like The locker room brings people together and it unites people in ways that without football probably would have never happened. And so it's just something that you have to respect the game of football and and and and if you can do that, I think you can do things the right way. I think you can grow a lot, in terms of not just as an athlete, but you can grow in terms of being a man when you get older. So I think I heard you say it, but did you at any time have a hard time separating This is who I am. I am a football player. This is my identity versus, you know, living life and this was at some point could not be part of who you are in the future. Yeah, it that's always hard, right? 'Cause you grow up from your youth, you grow up, you know, what do want to be? You know, you talk to kids, you know, what's your when when you go to class, nobody necessarily raises their hand, says they wanna do some desk job, right? They always wanna grow up and be an athlete or be a doctor or be a lawyer or something. really special and and so you grow up wanting to play football and and you chase that dream and you pursue it and and you put a lot of sweat equity into it. You put a lot of hard work into it. And I think you know, the one thing about football is it's very physically demanding and and whether you choose to to walk away from football or football chooses that it's your turn time to walk away, it's gonna happen. you know, y don't go to the Y C A and play pickup football, you know, you just football's over with and it's and it's done. And so you do have to be careful on that identity piece because one day, at a snap of fingers, football's gone and and there's certain ways that you can stick around and you can give back and and pour into it. And I had a lot of really good men that poured into me and mentored me. You know, again guys that played here, you know, thinking about Greg Nord, he was my my coach. He played here at Kentucky. you know, Mike Summers again, he his his His father-in-law is Joby Hall, you legendary coach here. So there's so many people that have poured into me and done right by the game of football that it's like it I feel like it's my obligation too to also try to do the same for for the youth of our own generation. Sure. Yeah. Were you raised in a Christian home? So I was raised, I gr I I grew up Catholic. so I I grew up my face story is a little bit different. So when I was say I was probably seven years old. My brother passed away. and through that, you know, difficult stretch of life, there was a lot of growing in our faith and and trying to just figure it out. And you know, have a lot of questions why. and again, we don't know why certain things happen the way they do, but through that journey I was able to grow up and and really grow in my faith. and so I you know, I got baptized Catholic and I you know did all my confirmation and I really I went through that process and I did have a strong faith. you know, maybe in some of my college years or high school years I was probably telling somebody I was Catholic, but I don't know necessarily that if you saw me Monday through Saturday, that you would say that guy's a guy with a strong faith and a Christian, but still try to be nice to people, kind to people as best I could. but at the for the most part, I would say yes, I always raised with a with a strong faith. But again, you're you're you're football and it was family and it was faith. How old was your brother when he passed away? he's five or six years older than me. I think he was twelve, yeah. As you as you got older, you you go and you play college football at the University of Louisville. w at what point did you realize that this is not gonna be on the field is not gonna be my future, but I'd love to continue to be part of that. So I I I redshirted, so I played quarterback in high school. I went there knowing that I wasn't gonna play quarterback. I knew I was gonna play tight end, so I knew I was gonna have learn some stuff. So I ended up starting my red shirt sophomore year. that same year though, I h ended up getting a what they called a benign tumor in my femur. and so through that whole deal, you know, I was I I was kinda on cloud nine thinking like, all right, this thing could be something that I I I could reach some of my dreams with. But also being realistic in some some capacity. after after that, you know, I was out for a little bit and I had to have you know, a cadaver bone put in. I had to have some some there were some times where I was immobile and I couldn't do a lot. So that kind of stunned my development physically a little bit. And I could tell I wasn't ever, you know, after I got healthy, I was kind of just trying to maintain. I I knew I couldn't really quite get to where I probably needed to get to to play at the next level. but at the same time, go back to my you know, my youth growing up around football, like I love the game. You know, I even though I c I probably ran a five flat, I was still paying attention during kickoff cover meetings 'cause I just I wanted to know how the game worked. And so through that and just really knowing something I was passionate about and something that I cared about, you know, with that opened up some opportunities for me to be able to get into coaching and and so when you know, I got a phone call one of my my Tight end teammates, his dad was the offensive coordinator at Purdue. And so I got done with my senior year and opportunity popped open a month later and I got to go and coach tight ends and continue on this football journey there. So you're downplaying this a little bit because getting a cadaver femur put into your leg is not stunning your growth a little bit. that is that's a significant thing to happen. At the time, what was your response to that? Did you think I could be done? Yeah, it w it was a weird it was a weird time because again I was getting bigger, stronger, and then all of a sudden I just overnight it was like something's wrong, what's going on? And then yeah, and then I'm like I'm still trying to be tough guy and try to figure it out. And then I remember one day I went to the trainers like something's wrong. I I can't get in my stance even, some I just don't feel right. And I remember some people being like, Hey man, you can't you can't you can't go to trainers and do I like something Wrong, wrong. so it went from, why is this why do I feel this way? To you start to find out there's a little bit of worry, well, you know, it's not cancerous here. It's you know, we gotta see if there's some type of infectious disease. We've got give you a ana antibiotics, we gotta do some I Vs. I had like a pick line put in. So like when they started to talk about some of that stuff, it was kinda like, this is serious. I need to, you know Obviously I have my goals and aspirations and and stuff that I've always wanted to achieve, but this is a little bit bigger deal than that. So, know, that scared me. And then obviously just being able to say, All right, we're good. You know, they they they they you know, they took like cadaver bone and they put it into you know, part of the the hole of my bone, I guess, where it was kinda getting a little less you know, stable. and then it just had to heal. And then once that happened, then I was able to start to get back into it. But there was a there was probably a month or two span where there was a little bit of of scare and concern and you know I still went about my ways of being, you know, a young college guy trying to just enjoy life. but it was something that definitely got my attention a little bit, but not necessarily, you know, completely transformed my life. Absolutely. Yeah. And then how many years after Purdue 2015 is when you were diagnosed or when you found out that you had a tumor in your knee. Can you tell me about the the response to that and how you found out about that at all? Yeah. so seven years later, so again, I was I remember it distinctly. I was walking upstairs, we had official visits going on, and all of a sudden out of nowhere, it was just like a a snap and and my my knee swelled up. And my knee was on fire and I remember I was put i there was not enough ice in the world to put on there and I'd for some reason something was wrong. And so, you know, something was wrong. So I I ended up I went to the training room, they kinda drained it and I was like, All right, something, yeah, it feels a little better now. It's not as stiff anymore. Let's just keep track of it. And again, I'm thinking it's something from, you know, when I was a player, you know, side effect, you know, what's going on. The trainers, the doctors drained it, they looked at it, it's like, well, just they weren't real worried about it. So just all right, well, just keep track of it. you know, a couple months went by and it wasn't necessarily getting any better. you know, I'd get it drained again and got to a point where I could tell there was some some muscle loss and some there was some issues going on. So it was like we need to go look at this and again I I was still young and, you know, there's hey, we're gonna send you to this oncologist and I'm naive. I'm like, all right, whatever. What's an oncologist? what's a cancer doctor? okay. So we go get it looked at. they do a biopsy. so again, I'm I'm still going about my business thinking everything's gonna be fine. And so I get a phone call from one of the nurse practitioners and she was just sharing, you know, it's we we've eliminated it, it's not it's not infection. So I was like, that's good, right? She's like, Yeah, that's good, that's not infection. But something else and I'm like, what does that mean? She's like, Well it's cancer. And so honestly in those moments, probably a little bit of fear, you know, uncertainty. obviously go through life and you hear about people having, you know, facing adversity and tragedy and you and you feel sympathetic. you know, sometimes in football, empathy is a little bit tough 'cause it's hard to, you know things happen, people get hurt and and so you try to be mentally tough and to that to an extent. But then once you kinda have to once you have to face that head on, I probably had a little bit of fear and and and definitely scared of what the future was gonna be. so I just remember just kinda breaking down a little bit and and crying and then didn't really know what to do. So I called, called my parents, called a couple people and then there was one again coach that again he played here. He was actually my dad's roommate in college here. coach Mike Cassie. I just saw him go through it. I was a GA at Western Kentucky and he had had cancer and I was like, you what, I'm just gonna call him and see what his experience was because I have n zero expectation of what is about to happen. I need to probably wrap my brain around it. And I just called him, shared what happened and I just asked him, could you share me share with me your experience? And he he shared and and there was some good stuff there. And and really the thing that I most appreciate from him is he gave me two pieces of advice. The first one was, you know, don't ever, don't ever feel sorry for yourself. There's a bunch of people that are gonna come and they're gonna tell you how sorry they feel for you and how how you don't deserve this and how they they just don't understand why. And he was trying to protect me because he knew people are gonna do that. And it was important for me to understand I'm not a victim, you know, this is this can be a blessing too. And so it was important to not ever let let your your hope in diminish, not ever let yourself feel like you're defeated. and so he he gave me that advice which which I clung on I I I clung on to that pretty pretty tightly during those those moments and then The other piece of advice that he gave me was attack. And just like in football, you wake up, you you come up with a game plan, you attack, you be aggressive, you don't sit back and and and feel sorry, you go and you try to attack. So good news, bad news, whatever it is, come up with the game plan and let's go. And so I tried to really, you know, keep those two things in the back of my mind. It really made an impact on me. you know, through that journey as well, you know, I was sharing with you earlier, you know, I kind of grew up you know, football, I had a faith, but I wasn't necessarily living that in my day to day. and so I took it as an opportunity where this is God getting my attention because I had always prayed prayers when when it was convenient that, you know, one day God I want to grow in my faith and one day I wanna be a man of God. But in my in my heart and in my head it was like, maybe not right now. I'm having fun living the life I'm living. If I do that, then I might have to give up some of these things that I really enjoy. Right. That's honest. Yeah. And and and that really honestly was, you know what, I'm gonna go into this and I'm gonna be joyful. And and I read the verse, James one, two through five, and it was just considerate pure joy whenever you face trials and tribulations of many kinds. And I was just like, you know what? I'm gonna be a light God. Anybody that sees me, I want them to know I have a strength that that comes from you, not from me, from you. And I wanna use it as an opportunity because I had there's so many opportunities in my life before where I could have really done that, whether it was when my brother passed away when I was younger. and again, I was seven, so it it was really hard to process some of that. you know, but one of my close friends, in in high school and then my teammate in college, he he he was murdered and you know, seeing his his mom go through what she went through and have some of that same strength like I witnessed her have a have a strength that surpasses, you know, all understanding. And so seeing her with that piece was something that really made me say, you know what, I can do this too. I'm gonna trust trust what I saw her go through and I'm gonna try to apply that. We'll get right back to that interview with Pete in just a moment. 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You can scan the QR code on your screen or use the link in our description to become a CBN partner today. What you had was not a small diagnosis at the time that they diagnosed you is stage four non Hodgkin lymphoma and I know that there are different variations of that, but but yours was severe. Mm-hmm. what was the prognosis? What did the the doctor tell you? I know you got great treatment and all of that. Yeah. But there had to be some sort of idea that this is not good. I could I may not be around. Yeah. Again, my the naive in me and the the just not being aware. I had to look up what is stage four. I there's some certain things in and my mother, she's a nurse, she's a nurse practitioner, so she kind of has a little bit more feel for that. So as she's asking certain questions, I'm like, this isn't good. but but yeah, so it my primary site was in my femur, right where that cadaver was. and it just spread throughout, you know, my body and it was in all my different lymph nodes. so then thus the the stage four diagnosis and that was obviously scary, right? Part of me I was a little bit beating myself up. I was trying to be a tough guy, my knee was bugging me months ago and I got it drained and I was trying to be tough guy and now because of that I'm I'm sitting here with stage four, whereas if I would have just said something when it bothered me if f initially, maybe I could have been stage one. You know, so I was kinda beating myself up, but again, I was, you know what, guy, like I'm gonna I'm gonna trust you right here and I'm gonna see where this takes me. but But yeah, the stage four diagnosis was was obviously something that was really s really scary. but again, just just let's look at it as an opportunity to grow. So you were married at the time? So funny story on that, so my wife, she was I got friend zone pretty hard in college. So she was we were we were buddies. she and she had always had boyfriend at the time, so we never really We're dating or anything. And and so when I got sick, she had a soft spot in her heart and she she didn't want me to go through that alone. So she would spend time with me and she would try to help cheer me up and and sh and she's just a a naturally just funny person. So she would always come over and she would work a full day and then she would come over and spend time and you know, looking back on it, it was just completely selfless of her. but then you know We started going through this and I guess when I lost my hair and I had a smooth bald head, she was like, Yep, I'm this is this I like this guy, so we're gonna start dating. So we end up getting married later, but this was actually a catalyst to to our relationship beginning was just the time that we were spending together and in in our head it was, you know, we've already done the whole in sickness and in health piece, so I know, you know, she's she's got my back till the end because I've seen her in action when We didn't necessarily know things were gonna go the way they did, but I just, I I saw who she was in that moment. That's awesome. You never know in what way God's gonna use the bad things in our life to to bring him glory and to to help mold you and shape you into into his image. Do you have people praying for you then? What do you attribute to and and I guess tell me how you went from having stage four to not having cancer? Yeah. So Yes. obviously you you you try to surround yourself with prayer warriors. And again, I I've had I have a couple friends that have always been again go going through life, they've always prayed for me and they've always tried to give me guidance and and and share godly wisdom. you know, at that same time in life, so my roommate in college, a guy named Eric Wood, and he you know, he would He was playing for the Bills at the time, but in the off season he'd come back and he would he'd go to this thing called man challenge. And so I got diagnosed, you know, I got a lot more free time on my hands. I'm sitting here trying to navigate, you know, how do I you know keep a a sound mind through this whole journey when there's gonna be ups and downs. I'm trying to grow in my faith. I'm trying to how can I turn this into a positive God, you know, not knowing what the future was gonna be. and so again, he invited me. So I went and we set this. There's a guy named Chris Burke. that you know, he would he would run the table. And Chris is phenomenal. He was a phenomenal athlete. He played for the Astros for a long time. But Chris, he he would challenge you. And so you'd go to to Southeast Christian, somebody would preach and and and kind of tee up some conversation. then you'd sit up small group and you'd talk and you'd unpack. And so through that journey, there was There's a lot of good conversations, a lot of me just listening, knowing that people are aware that I'm what I'm going through, but also, you know, still dudes, still trying to we're all in the same thing, trying to grow in our faith. and so that was something that I started to do then. you know, I would try to read my word a little bit more. I'd try to grow i in in terms of you know, if I c if I if I know how Jesus is is is walking, that's the best example that I could try to follow. and so trying to walk as Jesus walked is probably, you know, factoring, you know, looking at it from that perspective and then also looking at, you know, I'm gonna consider it pure joy, to go through trials and tributa tribulations. Like those were my two guiding lights as I started the journey. And so I would wake up and I would try to read and I would try to grow and you know, I'd have chemo every twenty one days and so you go through chemo, your immune system would go down, you'd you'd have to lay low and stay away from anybody and you'd go back, you'd get another one. So we go through three, three treatments of, and it was called art chop, and it was just some like a cocktail of they used to call it like a cocktail of drugs to try to heavy heavy duty stuff. Yep, yep. So we go through that and you know they said we're gonna do six. So after three we go, all right, we're gonna check on Check in, get an update, so get some more tests done, get a PET scan. your numbers are looking good. So everything's trending in the right direction. So in my head, I'm like, all right, we're we're moving the right direction. I'm growing in my faith. This is gonna be good. God's got my back and I'm and I'm really like I'm I'm secure and I'm solid in my faith and in this is gonna be good. God's got me. And so doctors say, Hey, we're gonna go through another three treatments and we're gonna try to get this thing completely wiped out so that you'll be completely in remission. Once we get you in remission, then then we can, go to the next steps. And so go through three more. I almost go into the doctor's office with a little bit of not cockiness, but confidence of all right, that we've been waiting for this day. how are we gonna celebrate this moment? I feel good. Everything's great. So you walk in, I walked into the doctor's office and my mom and dad are with me too. and the doctor comes in and it's there's not any conversation, there's no celebration. It was just, hey, let me show you, let's look at the screen real quick. And it's like, I don't know what what's going on. And he's he's showing me spots where it it's reverse pass and it's starting to grow. and it's starting to your numbers are basically reversing from the way where they were trending. And it like at that point that was like a a real gut punch. that was That was probably the hardest day of of the whole journey was because you go through, everything's good, we're good, I got this, this is gonna be good. You haven't had any real losses, you haven't had any setbacks. And that was probably the one day where you start to Google what's the odds of, this taking a turn back for the positive for the good. and I just remember, you know, not really having words and just being, you know, really just kinda Saddened because it was at that point it was it was n it was less about, you know, people are asking me for, you know, what can I pray for you about? And at first it's strength and it's and it's healing. You know, that was probably the the point in time where it was more about praying for peace and and knowing like I'm gonna be at peace because I know my my destiny's gonna be set. I'm gonna have I'm gonna have my strong faith with God. I'm gonna be in heaven soon. You know, and that was really where I was trying to come to grips with. and so, you know, with that, like we talked about earlier, football. you know, there's tough days in football too. You put all you put everything on the line, you can still come up short. and so that was probably, you know, we I remember at the time my wife, she was like, look, we'll we can cry about it. for one night and then tomorrow we wake up and we we try to figure it out. So so that's what we did. woke up, try to come up with a new game plan. And so the next the next thing to do was maybe a little bit more aggressive form of chemo. and that was called our ice and it was I had to stay in the hospital for, you know, three or four nights at a time and had I V hooked up to me the whole time. And at that same time was when I went to this church. It was called Saint Margaret, Mary in Louisville. And we had this old priest, this guy named Father John, and he was probably like ninety-five years old and kind of senile would say some things he probably shouldn't say just because he was old and everybody'd be Well, what are you gonna It's Father John, he's old. but he would always say, you know, more men need to come to adoration when we bless the body and the blood of Christ. That's on Wednesdays. it's a g it's a time where you can pray, you can be still and and and listen to God. And it it's a it's a it's a opportunity really to just be be still and be with God. So in my head I was like, I got nothing better to do. I might as well take up his advice and go do it. So I went I went to church that Wednesday and I remember I sat there for forty five minutes just praying, praying, praying. after about that time I I I was looking around going, All right, well, He said to be still and listen to God. And so I I listen and ten minutes goes by and it's like crickets and I don't hear anything. so I'm like, you know what? Maybe this is God's way of telling me I don't read enough scripture. How can he talk to me if I don't know his word? So in my head, and I've never done this in my life, I go, I was like asking God, all right, well, what do you want me to read, God? And I and I look around and I see like six candles on the altar. So I was like, maybe I'm supposed to read six something. Then I see two crosses and I'm like, maybe I'm supposed to read six two. And then some more time goes by and I'm like, what? And I see all these old women. I'm like, where's Father John? He said it's him and a bunch of old women. I see his head poking around the corner. I was like, let me just open up to John six two and read what it says. And it and Jesus had just fed the five thousand and it says everybody was amazed by the miracles that Jesus was performing on the sick. And so I get kind of goosebumps and I'm kind of rejuvenated and I'm like, God's God's listening to me, he's got my back. so again, we we start attacking this this new chemo and we go through two of those and again we're gonna stop and and see, you know, just get some more scans. and again, we go in thinking, All right, this is gonna be good. They come back negative and the numbers are as bad as they've ever been, everything it's at that point it was like, This is scary. And so I I got a buddy of mine named Patrick Workman that he was the best man at my wedding. but we grew up together and he would always send me prayers and to answer your question about people praying for you. He would always send me stuff and then for some reason he sent me some passages on you know, peace and and the difference between worldly peace and God's peace. And worldly peace tells you the at there's an absence of conflict, right? And it tells you that you're not gonna have hard times. Like it you're at peace on the world. But God doesn't promise us that peace. God promises us a peace that surpasses all understanding. And so that was probably the moment in my life where I was at most I had the most clarity of I'm at peace, God. If my last day here is tomorrow, if it's a hundred years from now, I'm at peace. And I and I'm gonna be faithful to that. there's a couple of things as well that let led me to, you know what, I know I was baptized when I was younger, but this is probably the time for me to to really, change my ways completely and and just completely be all in with God. And and there's some things that were, you know, I would read, you know, obedience is God's love language. And and for some reason as I'm reading scripture, you know, in that time of my life, there was just something the Holy Spirit gave prompting me to say, hey, you know what, you need to you need to do this and there's certain things that you need to completely say no to in your life. And so I was able to address that. And it was it was a cool story because, I talked about man challenge. I'm I'm I was I was there. you know, so I talked to Chris Burke like, Hey man, we'd I'd love for you to baptize me and and I'd like to do this. And my wife, same thing. She had she we're going through this journey together and she she wanted to get baptized too. So One day we woke up and went to church and after church, Chris was able to baptize me and then I was able to baptize Alyssa and you know it was it was kind of a cool surreal moment because at that point I I was I felt really at peace with everything in my life. and so, you know, we still weren't done fighting. So we came to to the Marquee Center to of cancer to start the process of going through a bone stem cell or stem cell transfusion. basically basically wipe out all my my blood cells and and then just in inject good clean white blood cells and then hopefully you know getting remission that way. And so we're we're starting to go through that process and I don't know, my so my mom she just said, you know what? Something's not right. We need to get tested again. and so, you know, we're going through get an did another PET scan, we get another biopsy, we do all these other things. And it it the craziest thing, the same tests that were coming back, you know, positive for for cancer months a month ago, this one comes back negative. And then another one comes back negative. And then all of a sudden we get to the point where every single test that we could do that could possibly say that had cancer is coming back clear. And so I just remember walking into the doctor's office and there being some confusion and and you know, just being told like, I'm not sure why you're in remission, but we're gonna say you're in remission. We haven't done anything since the last test. but at the end of the day we like I knew in my heart and everybody that that went through that experience with me knew exactly what had happened and and to your point that there's power in prayer and it there was a lot of people that were praying for us. There's lot of things that transformed in my heart and my life in those moments that you know, without without going through that experience, n you know, that was how God got my attention. and I just remember praying, and you know how it is, when you're going through adversity, sometimes those prayers have a little bit more you know, heart and stole into them and a little bit more of intensity. And I just remember praying like God, if you if you will spare me in this moment, I will share this story with as many people as I will that will listen and obviously God bless me in that moment. I'm still here today and I've been in remission for over ten years now and it's been quite a journey, but but ever since that moment, like it was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. and in the moment it it probably seemed like the scariest, worst thing that could have ever been brought up to me to me, but It changed my life for the good. You had planned on the stem cell transfusion. Did that did that happen or did it So we never got to that point. So it was the moments leading up and we're just like, something's not right. Like like you feel you feel good. So why like why are why are why are all these tests coming back that way? And so that was where our curiosity came in to say, you know what, we need to we need to double check and see before we go go this route. That's incredible. What then as you look back and you said you said it, I don't even think we need to have you say it again, but you said this is the best thing that could have happened to you and and I guess just tell me why you think that I just think back there's so many things in my life that had popped up that really could have I go back to when I was in college and I was young, you know, and I I'm going through this, I was probably still in my late my you know, my early twenties, you know, and I'm still trying to figure out life. I'm still, you know, I'm not married, I'm single. So like There were some things that all right, my brother passed away. There's other hardships that I gone through in life, and I still hadn't really grown into that man of God that I would always pray that I wanted to be because it was gonna be inconvenient, right? but going through that and experiencing that, it it opened up an opportunity for God to get my attention one and to two plant seeds in my in my mind and in my heart of you know, God is he's good and and he he will provide for us and he'll he'll we don't necessarily know why we go through some of the things that we go through, but in all things he can make good. And and that whole experience was just a living testimony to in what most people would probably consider probably their worst, you know, couple of months of their life, God turned it into the best couple of moments of my life because he he opened up my eyes and it had nothing to do with anything I did. Any of the doctors did anything, nobody did anything other than than God. And I I can't point I can't give glory to anybody else. I can't it's nothing that I willed myself to do. It was it was literally him just just getting my attention and and opening up my heart to how good he really is. Excellent. One question for you. what do you know now about God's grace that you didn't know then? What does your relationship with Jesus mean to you today? I was probably going through life just worried about worldly circumstances, worldly, you know, thoughts, you know, kind of stuck in my own bubble about what football is and and what my identity was. you know, still kinda in that football world. I would say God opened up my eyes to, you know, this time here on earth is temporary. this time here is is you know. a mist. and I think having that perspective kind of changes your urgency and in and how you approach things. It changes what you stress out about. You know, there's a lot of things that leading up to that that I was panicked and worried about and I and some things were out of my control. and then I'm going through that journey, the peace that he provided, which kind of guided me to say, Why am I even worried about that? That you know. And and it and it really pointed me in the right direction in terms of, we're here to to to plant seeds and to water them and and really just try to glorify God's kingdom. And I think anytime I get off the track or any season of life where I feel like I'm not doing that, I can directly relate it to, Whoa, I need to be in my word. I need make sure I'm I'm being faithful with God and I'm and I'm being obedient because again his God's love language is obedience. And I think that's where I can always just recenter and come back to God's going to give me grace for for anything that I'm really stressing about or anything that I'm struggling with. But at the end the day, God's God's going to provide for me. God is so amazing, isn't he? He doesn't have to comfort us. He doesn't have to heal our diseases. And he doesn't always. He doesn't promise that he will. But I love the scripture, 2 Corinthians. Chapter one verses three and four, which says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. And that's what happened with Pete. God didn't have to heal Pete from his cancer, but he did. But he allowed him to go through it, and he allowed him. To express trust in God that he would have not had the opportunity to do before his diagnosis, before his cancer, before all of the treatments started. And that helped him gain a greater appreciation for the God who saved him. Thank you so much for listening. 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