Sam Dick’s cancer journey continues to help others

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) -The Prostate Cancer Foundation says 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime.

More than a decade ago WKYT’s Sam Dick was diagnosed with the disease.

In that time since his battle, Sam has been a link to hope to countless other men across central Kentucky by simply being a listening ear.

For 34 years Sam Dick has been a trusted friend that thousands have allowed into their homes each night, reporting on countless stories including his own.

“We found something, three words from my doctor that changed my life,” said Sam Dick.

Sam revealed in 2010 just a few months after his own father David Dick died of prostate cancer that he himself had been diagnosed.

He chose early on to share his journey with our viewers and he is still sharing years later.

“I didn’t really know how it would work out because I had never had cancer before obviously and going public with it, I just thought you know maybe I can help people,” said Dick.

One of those people closely following Sam’s story was Rusty Parsons of Lexington.

“It started back in 2014 they started testing me then because my father has fought prostate cancer twice,” said Rusty Parsons.

Early on Parson’s prostate-specific antigen, or PSA level, something made by the prostate gland was low, but then spiked alerting doctors in 2019 something wasn’t right.

“First part of December they did the biopsy two days before, I get emotional two days before Christmas they give me the news, I have cancer,” said Parsons.

Parsons, like a lot of men was reluctant to talk about a very personal type of cancer, but then he remembered that trusted face he saw nightly on the news.

He sent Sam a Facebook message.

“Normal people, normal celebrities might say this is what I went through and blow me off, Sam’s response was this is my phone number call me,” said Parsons.

Countless texts and phone calls later, Sam was a listening ear Parsons needed most.

“He said we are going to get through it together, those are comforting words from another man that’s been through this,” said Parson.

The two men had never met in person, yet have shared so much and there have been countless others.

“Most of the men it wasn’t face to face, I think it was easier for men to want to talk to me on the phone, but at least they were willing to talk. And in some cases there were some tears,” said Dick.

It is something for Sam, that was just in his nature, a part of his story to try and reach others.

“Part of it was really just being a part of what we do here which is to be good members of our community,” said Dick.

And that in turn has helped Rusty Parsons want to tell his own story.

“Maybe this is why God brought me through all this is for me to be able to help others like Sam has been able to help others,” said Parsons.

Parsons was told in May his cancer was in remission.

For Sam he says one of the reasons he has considered to make himself available to other men facing a similar diagnosis is for education.

He urges men to know their family history, get screened regularly and if you are diagnosed to not hesitate to get a second and third opinion.

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