A patient called me out on my own bullshit. This beautiful woman, Flabby,

80 years young, I called her. She had stage 4 lung cancer and she was this beautiful woman.

She smoked like a chimney but she was in the hospital. She was doing some chemo because she wanted to do it so she could see her grandkids graduate.

She just was doing it as a favor to her family, she told me.

I went into her hospital room, a stress ball tied in knots, and I hey good morning flabby how you doing this morning

she took one look at me she looks me straight in the eye and goes

hey good morning, Dr. E.

You know, forget about me for a second because you look like crap.

What the hell's going on with you?

Because how are you going to take care of anybody if you can't take care of yourself? Welcome back to this week's episode of At the End of the Tunnel. I am your host Light Watkins and this is your podcast about hope, both receiving hope and when possible giving hope.

And speaking of giving hope, my guest this week is one of the most inspiring people I've ever

interviewed. I first met Dr Stephen when I was hosting my Shine events which were

these live shows that featured people who were using their platform for social good, and someone recommended that we have Dr. Stephen come and speak about his work.

So Dr. Stephen specializes in oncology and hematology. In other words, he's a

cancer doctor and he works with patients at all stages of cancer. But in addition to that, Dr. Stephen has been a lifelong musician, and for years

he was conflicted about whether he should pursue music or medicine. And that internal friction combined with the rigors of being in the business of private medical practice caused Dr Stephen to become very sick and he was even diagnosed with cancer. And almost by happenstands

when he was at his lowest point mentally and physically, he figured out a way to blend his two passions and he began composing songs for his cancer patients which would incorporate lyrics that they would come up with together. And this not only helped to heal them,

but it healed Dr. Stephen as well.

And he became known as this bright light

in the oncology community.

He was the doctor who was doing things differently. In other words, he was finally being himself.

And his work was featured on the Today Show and his first book called Love is the Strongest Medicine just came out with

...