n 2013, Julie Saxon’s career was thriving. The mother of two young girls had just received a big promotion and was managing her work-life balance well. Later that year, everything changed when her husband, Joel, was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer. This began a six-year journey through chemo, surgeries, hospital bills, insurance challenges, and trying to keep things together at work and home.
After 6 years, 87 rounds of chemo, ten rounds of radiation, seven surgeries, and two clinical trials, Joel’s valiant fight against cancer ended in his death. He lived longer than 99% of patients with his diagnosis. Listening to her story, I couldn’t help but think how much Julie’s strength, support, and sheer will contributed to his relative longevity.
Julie and I met when we both worked in ad sales at Yahoo! in the early 2000s. She was in the Atlanta office, where I would visit from the West Coast when I was home seeing my parents. Her story reminded me of how lucky we both were to work at a company filled with incredible human beings. To this day, her Atlanta co-workers remain some of her closest friends. Not only did one introduce her to Joel, but they supported her throughout her marriage and its sad conclusion. Many of their names come up in our chat, and while I wanted to explain the relevance of each one, I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of conversation. Trust me, they’re all great.
Julie is now VP/Group Director of Sales for a large digital media company. She and her two beautiful daughters live in Atlanta. I want to thank Julie for trusting me with this conversation.
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