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Choose Joy! It Ticks off the Grumpy People
"Aaron J. checked in to Heaven." This was the final check-in for Aaron Jamison on the popular social media app Foursquare. After all, Aaron, a stand-up and improvisational comedian, was an avid user of social media like Twitter, Facebook and Blogger throughout his entire chemotherapy. After being misdiagnosed for a year, it was discovered that Aaron had an aggressive form of colon cancer that had already spread to his liver and lymph nodes. The doctors gave him six months to live. These six months ended up being two-and-a-half years before 38-year-old Aaron passed on; a reason for this being that he weighed about 400 pounds and was able to take a lot more chemo therapy. Aaron took everything with the sense of humor he was known for, which is why he got tattooed with an expiration date that reads "BEST ON OR BEFORE 08/24/2009", referring to his initial six-month diagnosis.
Aaron's blog is located at judasforgiven.com, where he wrote honestly and humorously about his experiences from the hospital bed and the rest of his life. Aaron did what he could to raise money to offset the costly medical bills that he and his wife Kristin were continuously struggling to pay. Bracelets and T-shirts are available on his website, some bearing variations of "Cancer Sucks", or his motto "Choose Joy" which was how he lived his life: joy over despair and depression. Aaron and Kristin didn't make much off the t-shirts, "about a buck a piece" the blog states. The bracelets were mostly given out for free, despite hefty piles of unpaid medical bills. Aaron caught some small media attention when, thinking outside the box, he decided to sell ad space on his own urns (one for his wife, parents, and best friend). He hand-painted the 14 ads himself which were sold for $100 each although that $1400 only made a small chunk in the bills.
Aaron died on October 2nd, 2011. His blog entries are recommended reading as they provide insight into what Aaron and other cancer patients experience, and you're sure to find inspiration and a few joyful chuckles.
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