For Will Gilberti, an Eastwood native, everyday is a blessing.
"I don't take anything for granted anymore. I realize each day I get up is another borrowed day for me," he says.
CNY Central’s cameras were with him 10 years ago when Will and his wife Sue celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with family and friends at Crouse Hospital.
At the time, Will was battling multiple myeloma, a rare cancer of the blood, and was given less than six months to live.
Ten years later Will is cancer free. Will and Sue are now getting ready to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.
Will says it is an anniversary not very many people thought he would live to see.
"It's been a miraculous ten years. It's over ten years now, and not once has the cancer come back," he says.
Will's cancer has not come back because an experimental clinical trial using stem cells worked.
The couple spent two and a half years traveling to a cancer treatment center in Little Rock, Arkansas. The treatment was difficult and it was not an easy time for the Gilberti family, but Sue says the experience brought them closer together as a couple.
"There are people everyday who face challenges and grow as a result of it, and this was our challenge," she says.
Since his recovery, Will's life has been filled with unexpected blessings; walking his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day, and witnessing the birth of grandchildren.
For Sue, it is the simple moments spent with her husband that mean the most.
"My husband got a second lease on life and I want to spend it with him. If it's just sitting here on the deck, it is just sitting here on the deck," she says.
As for Will, he says if his battle with cancer has taught him one very important lesson; "Don't ever give up. There is always hope and that may be the only thing you have," he says.
For Will and Sue there is also love; a love that has withstood the test of time.
