Most people feel lucky if they can survive one type of cancer, but Linda Hill is battling her way through her fourth diagnosis with a healthy dose of laughter.
Hill, a 48-year-old single mother of seven from Bountiful, created a line of humorous T-shirts for cancer patients and their families that is gaining popularity in Utah, and at cancer centers around the country.
Hill hopes the shirts bring a smile to fellow patients with slogans like "Of course they're fake, the real ones tried to kill me," for those battling breast cancer, or "I lost my colon, but I'm still full of crap."
Having a sense of humor has helped Hill in her struggle against cancer, which began after she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease at 19. She went through months of radiation and chemotherapy, finally going into remission.
Twenty years later, she went to the doctor with what she thought was strep throat, only to discover it was thyroid cancer. She had her thyroid removed and considered herself lucky to be a two-time survivor.
At a yearly checkup and screening two years later, her doctor noticed a small leak in one of Hill's heart valves. A CT scan revealed a mass in her liver, and the doctor ordered a PET scan to rule out liver cancer.
Once the injectable dye was coursing through Hill's veins, her liver looked fine, but her left breast "lit up like a lantern" with cancer. It was April Fools Day, 2008.
Hill quickly had a double mastectomy, and her doctors brought in geneticists to determine her risk for other cancers. Colon cancer runs in the family, so a colonoscopy was recommended. In the two months since her last checkup, Hill had developed more than 70 polyps, and the team immediately decided to remove her colon as well.
She is still undergoing treatment for her breast and colon cancer, but her prognosis is good.
Throughout her struggle, Hill always kept her sense of humor.
"At least I've had cancer on parts you can remove," she said.
Her parents would not allow crying visitors to enter her hospital room, and her children tried to make her laugh. With five daughters around, "boob humor" quickly caught on, eventually inspiring the line of shirts.
Laughter might not actually be the best medicine, but a good attitude can improve cancer patients' quality of life, if not quantity, said Dr. Saundra Buys, Hill's oncologist at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. She has purchased the shirts for her patients during their rough spots, and is thankful that cancer is no longer a taboo subject.
"Now not only can we talk about it, we can turn it into Saturday Night Live," Buys said.
The shirts have grown into a phenomenon in the cancer community, and have spawned other products like bags and quilts. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck featured Buys last October, and the shirts are now being sold in cancer centers like NYU and St. Luke's in Kansas City, Mo.
The shirts are also about giving back. For each item sold, Hill donates $2 to the Huntsman Cancer Institute, where it goes directly to patient care.
The Huntsman family is actually Hill's biggest customer. Karen Huntsman often gives out the shirts at fundraisers and other events. The family even coined the phrase on one of Hill's most popular shirts, "I hope my kids inherit their mother's prostate."
Hill's favorite part of the business has been hearing the stories of her fellow patients. She firmly believes that cancer cannot define an individual, which inspired the name of her company, somuchmorecq.
Hill is so much more than the pieces she has lost to cancer, and hopes to remind the world of that by proudly wearing her favorite, "Does this shirt make my boobs look small?"
