Sixty-six.
What’s special about that number?
Well, it’s the number of immunotherapy ‘spa’ treatments I can add to my CV as of tomorrow afternoon.
Sixty-six. That’s a lot of treatments and I’ve come a long way and I’m still travelling.
And that of course reminds me of Route 66 and why it really does symbolise the cancer journey.
Route 66 is called ‘The Mother Road’ and it’s an American icon.
This ribbon of tarmac winds nearly 2,500 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, crossing plains, deserts, mountains, and countless small towns. Once dubbed the ‘Main Street of America’, it’s not a straight path all perfect and shiny. Nor is it fast or easy.
It’s a road of endurance, patience, and grit – much like the road a cancer patient travels.
Route 66 is a road of endurance, patience and grit – much like the road a cancer patient travels.
When you’re diagnosed with cancer, it feels as though someone has dropped you off at the start of Route 66 with no map, no GPS, and no guarantee what lies ahead. You’re simply told: start here.
The signpost looms overhead like a challenge: a long, winding road through places you never wanted to see, stretching beyond what you can even picture.
Like Route 66, cancer treatment is not a modern expressway designed for speed and convenience.
Rout 66 might be called the world’s greatest road trip but for a cancer patient, this is where the analogy feels all wrong. Cancer is definitely not the world’s greatest road trip by any stretch of the imagination.
It’s not a fast lane with smooth surfaces and predictable exits.
Instead, it’s full of bumps, potholes, and detours. Some stretches feel impossibly long, empty, and lonely.
You pass through desolate landscapes of exhaustion, towns with names like Fear, Fatigue, and Nausea. There are moments of sharp hairpin turns, unexpected storms, and sudden closures. You break down sometimes. You need to pull over, catch your breath, fix what you can, and keep moving.
Yet even this road, hard as it is, is lined with strange and beautiful moments.
There are neon lights on the horizon – hope flickering in the distance, giving you something to aim for.
There are kind strangers along the way – nurses, friends, loved ones – who point you in the right direction, fill your tank, patch you up, and cheer you on.
There are quiet stretches where you’re alone with your thoughts, and others where you’re surrounded by a convoy of support.
Route 66 was never about getting from point A to point B quickly – it was about the journey. It’s about the perseverance to keep driving mile after mile, even when the end seems impossibly far.
It’s about noticing the little ways the road teaches you: patience when progress is slow, courage when the terrain gets rough, gratitude for the pit stops of kindness and rest.
And at times, just like travellers on Route 66, you may find yourself wondering why you couldn’t just fly, why it has to take so long, why this route is necessary. But then you remember: every mile matters.
Every mile builds you. Every mile changes you.
By the time you reach your destination – remission, recovery, or even just another day of fighting – you’ll look back and see not just the hardship but the resilience. You’ll see a journey that carved character into you, revealed your grit, and taught you what it really means to keep going.
Route 66 is not the fastest way, and cancer is not the journey anyone asks to take. But both show us that there’s a kind of quiet courage in staying the course – one mile at a time, one treatment at a time – until you find your way through the long, winding road.
So if you find yourself on this journey, take heart: you are not lost. You’re on Route 66 – the road no one wants to take, but the road that proves what you’re made of. Keep driving. The horizon is still out there, waiting for you.
This is a route that seems to go on forever and this is what we want life to do.
We just have to find the fuel. Immunotherapy helps me rev back to life.
I don’t want the road to end. I have to stay on it.
Enjoyed reading this?
Please consider donating to my GoFundMe and help support me through my own cancer journey: https://gofund.me/2a6d5199