The Lump

His doctor thought he had a benign cyst—then it grew to the size of a baseball

- Luc Rinaldi

RICHARD DANZER FIRST cheated death in 1962. As a young American fighting in the Vietnam War, he was tasked with salvaging a ship that ran ashore on the island of Phú Quôc. Danzer and 10 fellow soldiers freed the vessel from the beach, but to save themselves, they needed to brave waves nearly four metres tall in a small rubber raft before North Vietnamese forces descended on them.

Danzer didn’t think they’d survive, but against all odds, they reached the ship and climbed aboard. “Every day since, I’ve thanked God,” he says. “And every day that I see sunshine is a good day.”

That attitude has helped Danzer navigate the choppy waters of aging. Now 79, he’s retired in Delray Beach, Florida, after a 50-year career working in sales and management in the paint industry. His wife has Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and he’s had plenty of health issues himself. In 2017, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. While treating that illness, his doctors discovered and excised a squamous cell carcinoma on his nose—a common but aggressive form of skin cancer that appears as a crust and can spread to other parts of the body if not treated. Once he was declared cancer-free, he began attending regular appointments to make sure he stayed that way.