If you want to climb the tallest mountains you usually need to help of a local guide. The sherpas have the knowledge, the skill and the experience to get you to the top. It's a rare feat if someone gets to the peak on their own.
Same with the challenge of being diagnosed with cancer. If you don't have a sherpa to guide you through the myriad of clinics and treatments, the many hallways of doctors, nurses, technicians, pharmacists, naturopaths and so on, then you will certainly have a more challenging and stressful route.
I am blessed. I have the smartest, kindest sherpa a guy could ask for. His name is Houman, he is married to Drina and together they are the best neighbours Tracey and I could ever ask for.
Houman is a radiologist and has explained to me what my X-Rays, cat scans and bones scans all mean. He gives me the straight goods and guides me when I need it, and remains silent when I need to figure it out for myself. Heck he even draws me a map of the underbelly of the Foothills maze so I can find my way.
I'm blessed, but so many others are not as fortunate. I would love to see our medical system find more Houman's. He loves helping people, and it's a shame not everyone has a sherpa to make this unwanted adventure just a little bit easier.
Oh, and he's not just my medical sherpa, he's also my nerd sherpa - he fixes our home networks and computers. Yup luckiest guy in the world.