CBS This Morning Features David’s Cancer Videoblog

University of Missouri Professor David Oliver was featured on CBS This Morning on Monday to discuss his videoblog of his journey with cancer. CBS featured a Special Report on David by Lee Cowan and an Interview with David.

After spending his career working in end-of-life care, David was diagnosed with stage 4 nasal pharyngeal carcinoma in November 2011. After his diagnosis, David started a blog to chronicle his illness and teach others about his experience as a patient. David has so far posted five videos and has received responses from people across the U.S. and in seven different countries. To learn more about David’s Cancer Videoblog, read our post from Friday, February 3, 2012.

“(The) big surprise for me, personally, is that I’m not afraid to die. I thought I would be. I’m a gerontologist. I studied the frail all my life,” David said in an interview with Charlie Rose and Erica Hill.

David explained his reasoning in taking his cancer diagnosis as an opportunity to teach: ”I’ll tell you what my 92-year-old mentor told me. This is going to be a war for me. David versus cancer. A battle. And that would have been a terrific waste of time. Instead, he said, ‘Don’t panic, don’t struggle. Relax and accept it. It is what it is. You know none of us gets out of this alive.’ And so, instead of wasting my time trying to battle this silent killer, I decided to — it’s a time to teach. If there ever was a time to teach, this is it.”

On the support he’s received from his wife Debra, who has been filming his cancer journey, David said, “Debbie is the caregiver. It’s all the caregivers out there who are suffering.” Like her husband, Debra Parker Oliver is a professor at the University of Missouri, and she is also a board member of the Social Work Hospice & Palliative Care Network (SWHPN).