Hank Baskett was accompanying a friend to an appointment at the VA hospital in Amarillo, TX, when he figured that maybe he should see a doctor about his persistent, hacking cough. An X-ray, an MRI, and a CAT scan followed. Then the doctor told the former U.S. Air Force chief master sergeant that he had  lung cancer. After he drove home to Clovis, NM, and told his wife Judy, he called his kids.

That’s how, in 2011, Baskett’s lung cancer journey began. His son and former NFL wide receiver, Hank III, was in Los Angeles when he received a recommendation for his father’s treatment. Baskett was in the L.A. physician’s office within a week, learned that he had stage 4 lung cancer, and began chemotherapy.

“I flew out there every three weeks,” said Baskett. “After about six months, they didn’t see any progress, so they changed the chemotherapy treatment. Later, they said that was as far as they could go.” So he went home.

About a year later, Hank III was sponsoring a golf tournament in conjunction with the Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (now GO2 for Lung Cancer). Baskett attended, and he met GO2 for Lung Cancer Co-founder Bonnie Addario, who helped set up an appointment for a second opinion.

The new physician performed comprehensive biomarker testing on Baskett’s tumor. He was diagnosed with ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer—a mutation the first medical team had missed. The good news? There’s a targeted therapy. He entered the clinical trial that saved his life.

Almost 10 years later, Baskett takes one pill a day and is thriving.

Choose life every day.

You can’t talk to Baskett without laughing, which is pretty remarkable when the topic is lung cancer. But it makes sense when you understand his philosophy of life. Simply put, “I choose life every day.”

“Man didn’t give you life. He shouldn’t be able to give you death,” Baskett said, “but you can allow him to give you death if you accept it.”

Baskett acknowledged that when first diagnosed, he didn’t really think he’d be around 10 years later. “But God said, I got it. Leave it with me and go enjoy that breath of life that I breathe into your body every day.”

Breathe, because as Baskett said, “It’s going to be a beautiful day.”

Learn more about comprehensive biomarker testing and contact our LungMATCH navigators with any questions about testing treatments, and clinical trials.