Cancer Survivors Night at Carnival

DULUTH, Minn.–“There was a month of just tests and scans and tests and scans,” said patient Dan Egley.

For Dan Egley, receiving his cancer diagnosis was no easy task.

Although the news was not easy, Egley decided to look at the positives that are in his life.

“The doctor was sitting over there and he said, ‘We found your tumor and it is malignant. It’s cancer.’ And I looked up and I said okay what’s next?” said Egley.

But Egley is just one of many who are fighting a battle against cancer.

Now 6-years-old, Kins-Lee Polson was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of four.

“She’s probably one of the strongest, most remarkable young people that I know,” said Kins-Lee’s parent Kayla Polson. “Being so young, for her and her sister, it was just a thing that happened and a thing that we had to work through.”

The early stages of Kins-Lee’s cancer diagnosis were challenging as she spent time away from her twin sister, spending roughly four and a half months going in and out of hospitals for treatment.

“They adapted very well but it’s hard to hear a four-year-old just very frankly and for a matter of fact say that she’s sick because she has cancer. Watching that become their reality is hard,” said Polson.

However for both Kins-Lee and Egley, they’re celebrating their success stories at a cancer survivorship carnival hosted by the Miller-Dwan Foundation.

“The annual survivorship celebration is really a chance for those who had a cancer diagnosis and their families or loved ones to come out and have a celebration,” said President of Miller-Dwan Foundation Traci Marciniak.

This has been the first survivorship celebration by Miller-Dwan since 2019. Miller-Dwan has impacted over 12,000 lives and even created the Caring Ways Cancer Center inside of Essentia Health.

“Cancer does a couple of things. First of all it puts everything into alignment. Everything that is important is now really important. My wife, my kids, my grandkids,” said Egley. “I don’t think about cancer every single day. I don’t think about it all the time. The only times that I think about it is when it comes up in conversation.”

No stress, no worry, no fear. Dan Egley describes those who deal with cancer everyday as warriors that continue their battle to win. | Design by Dan Egley