We met up with one man who shared his story.
Tom Waltz considers himself very lucky. Even his car license plate says "LUCKY 1."
He also understands that timing is everything. He was cured of Hodgkin's lymphoma when he was 27. But it could have been different.
Tom explains, "10 years prior to my diagnosis, Hodgkin's was almost certainly fatal."
But in the years just before it, doctors had just learned how to better target radiation to eradicate cancer while doing less harm to patients. Tom thanks the American Cancer Society for funding that research. He also thanks the ACS for meeting his wife.
He was waiting for a friend after a fundraising bike ride when he spotted her riding in.
"I said, 'Wow, I'd like to meet her.' She came up to me and said, 'I don't think I've met you.' And the world changed."
Donna and Tom Waltz have been together for 21 years, and now they do the cancer society bike-a-thons together.
