When I was first diagnosed with testicular cancer way back in October 1992, I knew nothing about it. I had delayed going to the doctor because my little paperback health guide said that testicular cancer was a very rare cancer. It did not even mention that TC was a young man's disease. Soon enough I had the good fortune to learn a great deal about this disease. A bad recommendation from my doctor had me quickly in the Northwestern med school library doing heavy duty research. My brother searched Lexis/Nexis and gave me a few news articles he found. I later did the same type of search and downloaded some articles. I even got onto the internet (though the World Wide Web did not exist yet) and asked for advice on newsgroups and email lists. I actually did find a few people who had had testicular cancer, but not many. I was lucky to find two other guys in my situation diagnosed within a month of me. Exchanging email with them definitely made the 'cancer experience' easier to deal with. From then on I watched the newsgroups, and whenever anyone asked a question about TC, I sent them a few articles and did my best to help them out.

In late 1996 I helped a new patient named Chris Brewer. While I might have started into this cancer and internet thing before Chris, he caught up and quickly passed me. While trying to use the internet to educate himself, he discovered, as I had, that there really wasn't much information out there, and the information that did exist (such as mine) was scattered around the globe. In between his orchiectomy and RPLND, he created this web site! It was not much at first, but I discovered it pretty quickly and forced my way on board.

Over the next couple on months we created an email support group for people to discuss their experiences and ask questions; a personal stories section where guys who've gone through testicular cancer can document their experiences for others to read and learn from; and an email support list that allowed people on the net to privately contact others similar to themselves and ask questions. Our biggest break was to become associated with Lance Armstrong (long before the luster disappeared from his name). Lance was diagnosed about the same time as Chris, and Lance hooked up with Chris right away. This gave us a lot of motivation to get things going, and it also got us in contact with some of the best testicular cancer experts in the world. These experts (primarily Craig Nichols and Rich Foster) helped us ensure that all of the medical facts found on our site were well grounded in reality.

To make a long story short, Chris and I spent more than two and a half years doing what we could, in conjunction with many other doctors and knowledgeable lay-people, to help as many guys and their family/friends as we could. To date we have been in contact with thousands of TC patients, and we have worked with men from literally all around the globe. In 1999 Chris decided to leave the TCRC to concentrate his energy on the Lance Armstrong Foundation and their mission in promoting Cancer Survivorship.

After Chris left, I asked Nick O'hara Smith to join me in administering the TCRC. I had run into Nick years before when he tried to create a USENET group for testicular cancer. His internet and cancer experience have proven invaluable, and I'm glad for his assistance over the years. Sadly, Nick died of a heart attack in December 2018, possibly as a consequence of radiation to his chest that he received during treatment for his cancer. Thankfully they don't use this treatment anymore for testicular cancer.