‘Then Lynda Walked In’: Cancer patient’s story of support

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — June is National Cancer Survivors Month. One Wilmington man is sharing his story after receiving his life-changing diagnosis.

Michael McGirt is currently battling stage two testicular cancer.

He said it started in January 2024, when he went to the doctor for what he thought was a pulled groin.

“I knew when the doctor walked through the curtain by the water welling up in her eyes it wasn’t good news,” McGirt said.

His doctor told him the cause was likely cancer.

“From the looks of it you have a mass on your testicle and your lymphoid are inflamed and enlarged and that’s a sign of testicular cancer,” he said.

Doctors confirmed the diagnosis in February. Chemotherapy started right away.

McGirt went through four rounds of treatment, five days a week.

Even though he had a doctor’s note to stay home from work, he chose to keep working.

“Every day that I didn’t get up and go to work I feel like cancer won. Cancer won that battle although it was a day to day, minute to minute, second battle,” McGirt said.

He said he was able to keep going thanks to the nurse navigator program at Novant Health Zimmer Cancer Institute.

That’s where he met Lynda Chambers, a registered nurse with more than 30 years of experience. She now works as a nurse navigator.

“There’s a lot of things, a lot of times I would call her and say, can you put that in English for me…” McGirt said.

Nurse navigators support patients through diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care. They also help manage appointments and explain complex medical terms.

Chambers said she takes pride in walking alongside patients during treatment.

“To be able to provide that sense of I know what the journey consists of and I know what we need to do to get you from point A to point B — and together we are gonna make it — and it just means the world. It really does,” Chambers said.

McGirt said that guidance changed everything for him.

“You walk past people that look like they are fine every day and they are dealing with stuff that is just — it feels like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. And I felt like that for a brief moment — that the weight of the world was on my shoulders, you know what I mean… and then Lynda walked in,” he said.

McGirt has a follow-up appointment scheduled for the second week of July at UNC Chapel Hill. His doctors said his lymph node hasn’t shrunk to the level they want. Further testing will determine the next steps in his treatment.