Episode 112

KEEP F’N GOING (KFG) With HOWARD BROWN

Episode Summary – 

LIFE IS SIMPLE - BE KIND TO YOUR SELF AND OTHERS! In Episode 112 of the Shining Brightly Podcast show (links in the comments), titled KEEP F’N GOING (KFG), I AM PODCASTING FROM MY HOSPITAL BED WHILE HI DOSE CHEMOTHRAPY IS ATTACKING MYELOID LEUKEMIA (not sure this has been done before but I need to focus on getting to a lifesaving donor-based stem cell transplant). This is my 3rd major cancer mountain I have had to climb in my lifetime. I WILL BE PLACING THE PODCAST ON HIATUS AFTER 112 AMAZINGLY INSPIRING SHOWS AND OVER 275,000+ DOWNLOADS. 

Peeps ask what they can do for me in my time of need. Here are my requests #grateful

1.) PLEASE DONATE to my go fund me if you can and PLEASE SHARE with others - https://www.gofundme.com/f/hbstrong-support-howard-brown-3rd-cancer-aml

2.) Please send healing prayers and hugs – I am receiving 100s and 100s daily from around the world

3.) CONSIDER – a donation of blood and or platelets WHERE YOU LIVE. I have had 10 blood and platelet transfusions and will NEED more transfusions DAILY but so do many others.

4.) THIS IS NEW ++++

CONSIDER – a cheek swab from Gift of Life https://www.giftoflife.org/ bone marrow registry. They can send a kit to your home or swab at a cancer hospital or BE the Match - https://www.nmdp.org/ is another great registry.

5.) Be KIND to others - random acts of kinds make the day better for you and the recipient!

6.) Hug your friends and family for NO REASON

7.) KEEP SHINING BRIGHTLY ALWAYS

Much luv

HB STRONG

Mentioned Resources – 

https://tinyurl.com/BuyShiningBrightly

About the Host –  

Howard Brown, Mr. Shining Brightly

Howard Brown is an author, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, interfaith peacemaker, two-time stage IV cancer survivor and healthcare advocate. For more than three decades, Howard’s business innovations, leadership principles, mentoring and his resilience in beating cancer against long odds have made him a sought-after speaker and consultant for businesses, nonprofits, congregations, and community groups. In his business career, Howard was a pioneer in helping to launch a series of technology startups before he co-founded two social networks that were the first to connect religious communities around the world. He served his alma matter —Babson College, ranked by US News as the nation’s top college for entrepreneurship—as a trustee and president of Babson’s worldwide alumni network. His hard-earned wisdom about resilience after beating cancer twice has led him to become a nationally known patient advocate and “cancer whisperer” to many families. Visit Howard at ShiningBrightly.com to learn more about his ongoing work and contact him. Through that website, you also will find resources to help you shine brightly in your own corner of the world.


Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so that you do not miss future episodes. And while you are there, it would help us get the word out to more people if you could leave an honest review.


Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe to your favorite podcast app.

 

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.


#keep #going #resilience #hope #cancer #sucks #author #bestseller #tvhost #survivorship #coaching #gofundme #motivation #education #inspiration #podcast #listen #download #review #share #shiningbrightly

Transcript
Howard Brown:

Hello. It's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Howard Brown:

Show. I got some big news for you, and not all of it's very

Howard Brown:

pleasant or good, but I need to share with you. First of all, I

Howard Brown:

want to thank you. This has been an amazing run of 112 shows,

Howard Brown:

raving fans, 275,000 plus downloads, and just listening to

Howard Brown:

the most interesting, amazing people and their stories of

Howard Brown:

human resolve, what they've overcome, what they've learned,

Howard Brown:

and how they lift themselves and lift up others. And it's quite

Howard Brown:

simple, kindness, kindness matters. Kindness for yourself,

Howard Brown:

kindness for others. That's that's the starting point, and

Howard Brown:

that's how you build a resilient life with hope. So let me dig

Howard Brown:

right in and share the news. Unfortunately, I've been

Howard Brown:

diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. It's cancer of the

Howard Brown:

bone marrow. It is because of all the other chemotherapies and

Howard Brown:

radiations and side effects I've had through the years. Now I

Howard Brown:

don't like to be defined by cancer, but it's been such a big

Howard Brown:

part of my life. It's who I am. And now I've got a third

Howard Brown:

mountain cancer, mountain decline. And so let me take a

Howard Brown:

step back for you bring you up to speed. So when I was 23 and a

Howard Brown:

half years old, I was diagnosed with stage four, not Hodgkin's

Howard Brown:

lymphoma, and I was told that I had six months to live, and I

Howard Brown:

was failing a ton of chemotherapies. And the only

Howard Brown:

good news I got in February of 1990 remember, this is analog,

Howard Brown:

no internet, no computers, no cell phones. This is really an

Howard Brown:

analog time. But my sister, my twin, CJ brown genres, and she

Howard Brown:

was an exact what's called HLA match 10 for 10. And slowly but

Howard Brown:

surely, they loaded me up with chemotherapy and got me into a

Howard Brown:

very short remission, and I got a bone marrow transplant. That's

Howard Brown:

what it was called. It's now called a stem cell transplant,

Howard Brown:

may 24 of 1990 and that little bag of life gave me 26 years to

Howard Brown:

put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I did a clinical trial

Howard Brown:

that strengthened my natural killer cells, and I moved from

Howard Brown:

Massachusetts to California and put my life back together,

Howard Brown:

emotionally, physically, financially, with my career and

Howard Brown:

in relationship, and so I started to get back to work

Howard Brown:

again. I started to heal emotionally from all the trauma

Howard Brown:

at such a young age and build up my my resistance, because just

Howard Brown:

going to work and working a full day took time, and I got back on

Howard Brown:

the basketball court and into the gym, walking on the beach,

Howard Brown:

and my career was starting to get back, but together and I met

Howard Brown:

my wife, Lisa, and we had a fairy tale Hollywood Wedding at

Howard Brown:

shutters at the beach in July of 24th of 2000 and I'm sorry, of

Howard Brown:

1994 and became a Big Brother, did a lot of community service

Howard Brown:

and really got my life back. And so miracle number one, my twin

Howard Brown:

sisters, bone marrow. Miracle number two, before I did a drop

Howard Brown:

of chemotherapy, I ended up going to the cryogenic center,

Howard Brown:

cryo what sperm bank, and I delivered a sample, even though

Howard Brown:

they told me I was going to die. And it was one of the best

Howard Brown:

decisions that Dr Eric Rubin told me about, because 11 years

Howard Brown:

later, frozen sperm became our beautiful miracle girl, Chapter

Howard Brown:

Six in my book, Emily, our frozen kidsickle. And what a

Howard Brown:

blessing just to be able to become a father and and have

Howard Brown:

just an amazing daughter to to basically live our lives out

Howard Brown:

with. So I was working in Silicon Valley when that

Howard Brown:

happened, and my twin sister says, I'm moving to Michigan.

Howard Brown:

Well, Lisa's from Michigan. We have family there, and Emily

Howard Brown:

could grow up with her cousins. My sister has three kids, and

Howard Brown:

Marley, who's now 26 and twins that are going to be 23 soon,

Howard Brown:

and Emily's 23 and then also cousins that were at that time,

Howard Brown:

four and six years old. So we built a life back here. Been

Howard Brown:

here for 19 and a half years, and I was basically running two

Howard Brown:

platforms serving the world's largest social networks. It was

Howard Brown:

called Planet Jewish, and then circle builder. So I was

Howard Brown:

basically built an engine, an events engine to find out what's

Howard Brown:

going on in Jewish communities around the US and Canada and

Howard Brown:

even internationally. And you could do that basically on web

Howard Brown:

one, oh, type of work, and find out what you wanted to do and

Howard Brown:

get involved and volunteer or take a class or do a mommy and

Howard Brown:

me so. And we process millions of events over the course of 17

Howard Brown:

years. And we then started circle builder. Circle builder

Howard Brown:

was for Christian builder, Catholic builder, Jewish

Howard Brown:

builder, Muslim builder. Had new builder. And we built a whole

Howard Brown:

different platform, Ruby on Rails, 1.0 and this is in 2006

Howard Brown:

and rolled that out to churches and ministries, and really

Howard Brown:

started the whole movement of a church beyond its walls on

Howard Brown:

Sunday and basically able to serve your congregation and get

Howard Brown:

them the information they need to be able to become more

Howard Brown:

involved and volunteer and do Bible study and anything you

Howard Brown:

know, you wanted to share your interests with them. And so life

Howard Brown:

was good. Playing basketball in Michigan. Found my crew played

Howard Brown:

four and four full full court, basically on short court. And it

Howard Brown:

was awesome. And unfortunately, at age 50, where you're supposed

Howard Brown:

to go into a colonoscopy, the screening age is now 45 so time

Howard Brown:

out, go get screened. Don't get cancer. It's horrible. It's just

Howard Brown:

a terrible existence. But if you get screened and deal with your

Howard Brown:

health checkups, so for cancer, it's, you know, cologuard poop

Howard Brown:

in a cup, or the gold standard of colonoscopy, and that age is

Howard Brown:

45 unless you have symptoms like blood in your stool,

Howard Brown:

constipation. It's confused with Crohn's disease and irritable

Howard Brown:

bowel disease. Sometimes it's hard to be diagnosed, but go get

Howard Brown:

your colonoscopy. If you're 45 or if you have family history,

Howard Brown:

you can actually eat it sooner, and so my daughter will be

Howard Brown:

getting one sooner, and also get a mammogram and check your

Howard Brown:

prostate and go to the dentist, a lot of that stuff we couldn't

Howard Brown:

do during the pandemic. And now we need to get healthy and stay

Howard Brown:

healthy, and that's what, really what you need to do. So I was

Howard Brown:

diagnosed with stage three colon cancer right sided, and I had

Howard Brown:

resections and tons of chemo, and unfortunately, a year later,

Howard Brown:

I went metastatic. It spread outside of my colon to my liver,

Howard Brown:

my stomach lining is called peritoneummentum, a bladder. And

Howard Brown:

second time in my life, I was told to get my affairs in order.

Howard Brown:

I had six months to live, and I didn't know if I was going to

Howard Brown:

ever see my daughter graduate high school. She was 15 at the

Howard Brown:

time, and I joined colon town, and I got to meet and talk to

Howard Brown:

other cancer patients that had this crazy surgery called

Howard Brown:

Cytoreductive Surgery, hyerthermic intraperitoneal

Howard Brown:

chemotherapy. (CRSHIPEC) So basically, they cut me and took

Howard Brown:

out all the cancer that they could see, and then poured hot

Howard Brown:

chemo in my pelvic and abdomen to kill micro cell, and that

Howard Brown:

saved my life. That's miracle number three. So it's absolutely

Howard Brown:

incredible. So bringing things forward, I got five years of no

Howard Brown:

evidence of disease, I was playing hoops, still on

Howard Brown:

disability, but during the pandemic, I wrote shining

Howard Brown:

brightly. Thank you David Crum and Frontage Publishing, and

Howard Brown:

Read The Spirit magazine. I did it over zoom. I interviewed 158

Howard Brown:

of the most influential, important people in my life, and

Howard Brown:

I built a book that you can relate to. It's inspiring. It

Howard Brown:

talks about families, and families don't get along. We

Howard Brown:

laugh, cry and fight together, and trips we've taken together.

Howard Brown:

And I talk about mentorship is true leadership. I think it's

Howard Brown:

the lost art of leadership to be a mentor to someone else, or to

Howard Brown:

allow yourself to be a mentee. And I talk about interfaith work

Howard Brown:

of knowing the other, their cultures, their foods, their

Howard Brown:

histories, and we're all different, but we're here to get

Howard Brown:

along. We're not taught to hate. We could choose not to hate, and

Howard Brown:

especially in chapter one, where my 100 year old grandmother said

Howard Brown:

to choose kindness every day, choose giving every day, choose

Howard Brown:

gratitude, choose joy and choose not to hate. These are simple

Howard Brown:

principles that you can look in the mirror as a mantra and say

Howard Brown:

every single day. So I'll take a break for a second, and I've got

Howard Brown:

chemo running in IV right behind me, and I shave my head, for

Howard Brown:

those that'll see it in the video portion. And I've got

Howard Brown:

another huge challenge in front of me.

Howard Brown:

I noticed a bruise on my forearm. I had played basketball

Howard Brown:

that Sunday before. I'd hiked five miles that Monday and

Howard Brown:

Tuesday, worked out, and I saw a bruise on my forehand, and it

Howard Brown:

wasn't from basketball. I took a picture of it. I texted my

Howard Brown:

oncologist, Dr rich Jackman, and he said, Come in, let's do some

Howard Brown:

blood tests. Well, those blood tests revealed that I was pancit

Howard Brown:

in anemia. So that means my white counts, my red hemoglobin

Howard Brown:

and and my platelets were critically low. And that's not

Howard Brown:

good, not a good sign. And we did a bone marrow biopsy, and on

Howard Brown:

october 25 I was told for the third time in my. Life that I

Howard Brown:

actually have acute myeloid leukemia. This is all chemo

Howard Brown:

induced and resistant from all the chemotherapy, full body

Howard Brown:

radiation that I had on my prior non Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancer

Howard Brown:

and colon cancer, and my sister's bone marrow just

Howard Brown:

stopped working, and my tank ran out of gas, the engine seized

Howard Brown:

up, and I got a lot of wear and tear and mileage on this, on

Howard Brown:

this, this old, 58 year old model. And so shocking news

Howard Brown:

zipped me back in from five years into evidence to disease,

Howard Brown:

back into the cancer world. And we tried a protocol of targeted

Howard Brown:

therapy, pills and chemo, and I did a bone marrow biopsy last

Howard Brown:

Monday, and we realized that this protocol wasn't working,

Howard Brown:

not the news we wanted to hear. In fact, the Leukemia actually

Howard Brown:

grew from 30% involvement to 40 a large cancer burden and very

Howard Brown:

serious. So got the Thanksgiving weekend to watch football, spend

Howard Brown:

time with my parents, my daughter flew in, and I'm back

Howard Brown:

doing high dose chemotherapy for the next six days. It's going to

Howard Brown:

knock me out. It's going to knock my immune system out, and

Howard Brown:

hopefully, when I have my next bone marrow biopsy will show

Howard Brown:

that the disease has been knocked down, because I'm

Howard Brown:

entered into the National Bone marrow donor database. I'm going

Howard Brown:

to need another donor like my twin sister is not eligible this

Howard Brown:

time, preferably a male age 30 to I'm sorry, 20 to 3035, to

Howard Brown:

donate their bone marrow after doing a cheek swab. And I'll

Howard Brown:

have information on the show notes for GIFT of life.org and

Howard Brown:

either match.org if you want to do that. Unfortunately, older

Howard Brown:

people's bone marrow is ineffective as younger people's

Howard Brown:

bone marrow. My sister was 24 when she gave me her bone

Howard Brown:

marrow, and so I need to get into some type of remission and

Howard Brown:

get a stem cell transplant. It's intense and but that's what I'm

Howard Brown:

going to need to do to save my life. And I've got a lot of

Howard Brown:

living to do my daughter Emily, who's in podcast 109 she said we

Howard Brown:

got to get busy living, and that's what we have to do. And I

Howard Brown:

want to I have goals. I want to walk her down the aisle someday.

Howard Brown:

And I have goals about my podcast and my book and my

Howard Brown:

speaking and my coaching and to helping others, and so I need to

Howard Brown:

get healthy first. And so it's been a very intense time, and

Howard Brown:

I'm going to have to put this podcast on hiatus. I need to

Howard Brown:

focus on my health, and I'm sad because this brings me joy. So I

Howard Brown:

choose to do this podcast weekly for the last almost two years,

Howard Brown:

and it's joyful. I've met the coolest people ever, inspiring

Howard Brown:

people that have gone through some really tough stuff to be

Howard Brown:

able to come out the other side and use their lessons learned to

Howard Brown:

help others. And we all need a little hope, H, O, P, E, that is

Howard Brown:

the fuel that keeps most of us going, and so this is kind of

Howard Brown:

where we're at. I love everybody that is sending me lots of

Howard Brown:

healing, prayers and hugs. I have a huge worldwide network.

Howard Brown:

It's by the 1000s that love energy is lifting me up. Please

Howard Brown:

keep it coming. I've also one of the things that I learned having

Howard Brown:

colon cancer, you know, at age 50, is that people say, What can

Howard Brown:

I do for you? How can I help you? And you have to have an

Howard Brown:

answer for that. And I do have an answer for that. And so on my

Howard Brown:

GoFundMe page, which has raised $75,000 on LinkedIn and

Howard Brown:

Instagram and Facebook. I tell people what they can do and make

Howard Brown:

that choice to help me in my time of need and help my family

Howard Brown:

in their in their time of need. And so the first thing is that

Howard Brown:

you can go to gofundme.com and search Howard Brown. And the

Howard Brown:

first co funding comes up is for colon cancer. Don't use that

Howard Brown:

one. Use the one of the third cancer, for AML, acute myeloid

Howard Brown:

leukemia. And people are just being very generous, because I

Howard Brown:

plan on living and I plan on getting back up again, just like

Howard Brown:

I preach. And I'm going to need those funds to get my life back

Howard Brown:

on track and get started and build Humpty Dumpty for a third

Howard Brown:

time, emotionally, physically, financially and in

Howard Brown:

relationships. So go fund me. The first thing they can do, the

Howard Brown:

second I ask people to send is healing, prayers and hugs, any

Howard Brown:

which way you can, and I can't keep up and answer everybody's

Howard Brown:

replies, but Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, direct messaging,

Howard Brown:

texting, email, it's coming, and it's just overwhelming, and it's

Howard Brown:

lovely. It's amazing. I just I'm so happy that people are

Howard Brown:

thinking about me and taking the time to join. Shining brightly,

Howard Brown:

movement and army to make the world a better place, and come

Howard Brown:

to me in my time of need, it's incredibly humbling, it's

Howard Brown:

incredibly inspiring. And keep it coming, for sure, the next

Howard Brown:

thing I ask is for people too in their local area to donate

Howard Brown:

blood, red cells and platelets. They're needed down for the

Howard Brown:

hurricane. Just go in and to your hospital and they'll

Howard Brown:

they'll take your blood. It doesn't take much time, and we

Howard Brown:

need blood for not just me. I'm going through blood transfusions

Howard Brown:

and platelet transfusions like crazy, because my immune system

Howard Brown:

is not down so low. But you can give blood, and that's a

Howard Brown:

beautiful way to shine brightly, and a beautiful way to act with

Howard Brown:

just pure kindness. The next is to swab your cheek. So this is

Howard Brown:

what I was talking about with a bone marrow donor registry. It's

Howard Brown:

worldwide, and the ability to swap your cheek gets you

Howard Brown:

entered. It doesn't mean you'll get matched, but getting matched

Howard Brown:

used to be a one in 25,000 chance. It's now less, but we

Howard Brown:

need people in the registry. This is a life saving gift that

Howard Brown:

can really help cancer patients in need, and so that swab will

Howard Brown:

put you in the database at GIFT of life.org, or Be The match.org

Howard Brown:

and you may never get called, but you may, and then you have

Howard Brown:

to consent. Then they'll take blood, and then they do it very

Howard Brown:

differently. 35 years later, they actually really get your

Howard Brown:

bone marrow all jacked up and super bone marrow. And then they

Howard Brown:

actually take it like giving platelets. So they take out the

Howard Brown:

stem cells, and they leave everything else, the platelets

Howard Brown:

and other blood, in there. And it's over a course of, you know,

Howard Brown:

three, four days, and then it is flown to the cancer stem cell

Howard Brown:

transplant center, whatever it is in the world, there's no cost

Howard Brown:

to you but, and it'll remain anonymous for a year in the US

Howard Brown:

and two years internationally and again, choosing giving real

Howard Brown:

simple choose to give your bone marrow if called and it's a

Howard Brown:

blessing. Next, I ask people if they can do a random act of

Howard Brown:

kindness, because kindness makes the world go around. Be kind to

Howard Brown:

yourself and be kind to others, and that makes the world so much

Howard Brown:

better, and that is truly shining brightly. Lastly, I ask

Howard Brown:

people to hug their family and friends for no reason, for no

Howard Brown:

reason, just go hug your family and friends. Just a great way to

Howard Brown:

have joy and be kind. But what are you doing? Why are you

Howard Brown:

hugging me? Hug you, because I love you, and that is truly

Howard Brown:

shining brightly as an individual and as a movement. So

Howard Brown:

I'm going to put this on hiatus. I hope to see you real soon.

Howard Brown:

Special thanks to front edge publishing, my book publisher,

Howard Brown:

read the spirit magazine where I blog, and I'll put that on

Howard Brown:

hiatus now as well, for a little bit, also for amplify you

Howard Brown:

amazing podcast production house that makes me look great, and

Howard Brown:

finishes my podcast assets every week for almost the last two

Howard Brown:

years. Also for one of my newer sponsors to speak and speak,

Howard Brown:

inspire and prosper, share and love. And also, I want to shout

Howard Brown:

out to Ali Horia from capes Avisa. And there's just so many

Howard Brown:

people that have influenced me and made things better, and I've

Howard Brown:

gotta go, just bear down, power through and I'll do that. We'll

Howard Brown:

do that because life, fighting cancer, business, family, it's a

Howard Brown:

team sport. Remember, I love you. Please pray for me, and

Howard Brown:

we'll see. We'll see on the other side, keep effing going.

Howard Brown:

It's all we can do every single day. Howard Brown, Mr. Shiny.

Howard Brown:

Brightly. Signing off for now. Love you.

All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Shining Brightly
Shining Brightly
Shining Brightly every day does make the world better place! Be prepared to be inspired!

Listen for free

About your host

Profile picture for Howard Brown

Howard Brown