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♪ - [Bob]

Paducah is a great little town. It's just...it's a really good community. I have a therapy dog, Joey, and we've been working in hospitals and nursing homes for about eight years.

If you think you have a problem, stop and talk to somebody, and in about 10 minutes, you know, you really kind of walk away thinking, "It's not as bad as I really thought." I had no pep in my step, and I said, "No gas in my tank." That's what I'd tell my wife Terry. I had been doing a yearly PSA test, and my PSA test came back with a elevated number, so we went to see Dr.

Spicer, the urologist, and he ended up suggesting a biopsy. I'll never forget, you know, when he came in. He's a wonderful person. And he closed the door with Terry and I and he says, "I've got bad news."

When you hear that word that you have cancer, it's just like... it's hard to describe. You just...I almost felt faint. It was a blessing to know that the Ray & Kay Eckstein Cancer Care Center was available and that they had Dr.

Locken, and the ability to treat me here at home in my own back yard, which meant just a ton to me because my mother is here. She's 91 years young, and my wife and my work and my dogs, and just the community.

- [Dr. Locken]

The community really attracted me. And then what kept me, and has made me stay here, has been the dedication of Baptist Health Paducah towards oncology. We have state of the art technology and facilities. I truly believe that we have world-class cancer care here.

And the delivery of radiation, it's like an X-ray table. Most everybody's had an X-ray, they're hard, they're flat. In order to accommodate Bob, we needed to develop some support devices that would allow him relief from his back pain, but still keep him immobilized so we could target the tumor we were treating.

- He was genuinely concerned that, you know, we get this done and we get it done properly. And he managed to make that happen, you know, with his team. I can't say enough good about Dr. Locken.

He's just one cool dude.

- [Lisa]

The spirit of cancer patients, they are very strong. They're often worried about the people that are there with them.

- I love nurse Lisa. It didn't take long at all and I felt like I could just talk to her just, you know, like a best friend. You can teach somebody to do a job, but you can't teach people to have the compassion they had. It was the difference between to be able to make all 43 treatments or not.

- [Veretta]

I feel like anyone that I come in contact with, I would treat them as if it was my family, if it was my brother, my sister, or my mom. And I think here, we do put our patients first.

- The goal is to finish the radiation, and there's a bell on the lobby. That's something that kind of you look forward to doing, was being able to ring the bell. We had Kirchhoff cookies that were made in the bell shape. I took those, the last day, on a Monday, when I actually rang the bell.

And I was so thankful to be able to stay here. Being able to leave there every day and come home and get in my own recliner, and have my own bed and my own shower, it was just a beautiful thing. Baptist Health gave me a new chance at life right here in my own backyard. Beautiful place, great food too.

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