{"id":7827,"date":"2025-08-02T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7827"},"modified":"2025-08-02T20:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T20:30:00","slug":"cancer-surviving-veteran-donates-rings-celebration-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7827","title":{"rendered":"Cancer-surviving Veteran donates, rings celebration bell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2025-08-02T20:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<p>Navy Veteran Matthew Roach rang the celebration bell at VA Amarillo\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/amarillo-health-care\/locations\/lubbock-va-clinic\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Lubbock VA Clinic<\/a> on July 8, signifying his official triumph over terminal stage 4 metastatic <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/?s=prostate+cancer\">prostate cancer<\/a> one year after being diagnosed.<\/p>\n<p>Roach was the first Veteran to ring the newly installed bell, which he donated to the facility months earlier in hopes of inspiring other Veterans facing similar battles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRinging the bell is a symbol of survival,\u201d said Roach. \u201cIt\u2019s a statement that says, \u2018you made it through\u2019. I hope this bell will give other Veterans something to look forward to\u2014a real sense of achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The journey<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/PAO_8042_r1.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Navy Veteran Matthew Roach rings the celebration bell on July 8, 2025, signifying his official triumph over terminal stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>His journey began in 2019 with a diagnosis of prostate cancer. After undergoing robotic surgery and 38 consecutive days of radiation, he was declared cancer-free in 2020. But in July 2024 he received a devastating diagnosis: the cancer had returned and spread to his colon, lymph nodes, tailbone and shoulder blade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought this is it, I was going to die,\u201d said Roach. \u201cI started preparing for it\u2014writing a will, getting my affairs in order. It felt like the worst kind of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite his prognosis, Roach\u2019s care team at the Lubbock VA Clinic quickly mobilized a treatment plan that included aggressive chemotherapy and hormone therapy. Roach also took it upon himself to dive into holistic health. Within months, his level of prostate-specific antigen, a protein produced by the prostate gland, dropped from nearly 6.0 to an undetectable 0.008.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were good days and there were a lot of really bad days,\u201d said Roach. \u201cBut throughout the journey, my care team made me feel like I wasn\u2019t just a patient with cancer. They became more like friends than providers to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/r2.jpg\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cNot every story like this turns into a good one, which is why Matt\u2019s story means so much,\u201d said Leslie Vaughn, chemotherapy infusion registered nurse. \u201cIt\u2019s rare to see this kind of turnaround with stage 4 metastatic cancer. He\u2019s a fighter, and his spirit is contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The celebration bell hangs in the Lubbock VA Clinic\u2019s chemotherapy treatment waiting room, where it will continue to mark milestones of courage, resilience and healing for other Veterans for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just a piece of metal,\u201d said Roach. \u201cIt\u2019s a message\u2014that hope is alive here.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/141395\/cancer-surviving-veteran-donates-bell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Navy Veteran Matthew Roach rang the celebration bell at VA Amarillo\u2019s Lubbock VA Clinic, signifying his triumph over terminal stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer one year after being diagnosed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-health-care"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cancer-surviving Veteran donates, rings celebration bell - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Navy Veteran Matthew Roach rang the celebration bell at VA Amarillo\u2019s Lubbock VA Clinic, signifying his triumph over terminal stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer one year after being diagnosed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7827\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cancer-surviving Veteran donates, rings celebration bell - 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