By Wayne Schlicht – Seeking US-based literary representation.
The Story Begins
Today I’m sharing something that took more courage to write than anything I’ve ever put on a page. Chapter 1 of my memoir, Still Here: How Faith, Food, and Family Beat Stage Four Cancer, is now available to read in full on this site.
Why I’m Sharing This
I am not a doctor. I am not a researcher. I am a man who was told my stage four cancer was aggressively spreading into my lungs, breaking through cellular walls, and that I likely had only months to live. I was given roughly a 20 percent chance of responding to immunotherapy alone. In other words, the odds were stacked heavily toward failure. But I chose to fight anyway. I am sharing my story because when I was standing in the darkest moments of my life, staring at statistics that quietly assumed my death, I desperately needed to hear from someone who had already walked this path and survived it.
What You’ll Find in Chapter 1
This chapter documents the most brutal eighteen months of my life, beginning with the moment in May 2024 when I knew the cancer was back and ending with the scan in May 2025 that confirmed it was no longer contained. In between is a single high-risk surgery, a radical neck dissection performed millimeters from my carotid artery, more than twenty chemotherapy infusions, and seventy radiation treatments. Despite everything, the disease continued to advance. By the time the final scan arrived, the cancer had progressed into my lungs, officially marking the transition to metastatic stage four disease and forcing me to confront the reality that time was no longer on my side.
The Impossible Choice
You’ll read about the decision that changed everything: choosing Keytruda alone, without chemotherapy, despite a PD-L1 score that gave me only a 20-25% chance of response. You’ll understand why I made that choice, what it cost me to make it, and what my wife Sarah saw that the statistics couldn’t capture.
A Trip That Changed Everything
You’ll ride with us to Tennessee—my son Gregory driving through thunderstorms, Sarah navigating us toward a consultation that would reshape how I understood cancer treatment. What we learned in that pharmacy gave us a plan when we had nothing but fear.
The Protocol
I lay out everything: the carnivore diet I started the same day, the high-dose IV vitamin C, the supplements, the repurposed medications, the lifestyle changes. Not as medical advice, I’m not qualified to give that, but as one man’s documented journey through stage four cancer.
The Results
And you’ll see what happened. The September scan showed the nodules shrinking for the first time. The December scan showed two completely undetectable nodules. Not because I got lucky. Because I gave my body every tool I could find to fight.
This Is Just the Beginning
Chapter 1 is the foundation. In the chapters ahead, I’ll go deeper into each element of my protocol, share the research that guided my decisions, and tell the full story of my family’s journey through adversity long before cancer entered our lives.
Read Chapter 1 Now
If you or someone you love is facing cancer, especially recurrent or metastatic cancer, I wrote this for you.
Read Chapter 1: When Cancer Comes Back
Please Comment
At the end of the chapter, you’ll find a comments form where I invite you to share your thoughts. As I take my first steps toward seeking US-based literary representation, your engagement and feedback genuinely help bring this story to life and to the attention of those who can help it reach others.
Stay Connected
Subscribe to this blog to be notified when new chapters are posted. Share this with anyone who might need to hear that stage four doesn’t have to mean giving up.
I’m still here. And I’m just getting started.
—Wayne