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Tom Willner, Singer, songwriter, composer, father, husband
Around his 30th birthday in 1999, Tom Willner discovered he had testicular cancer. He had lost his father to prostate cancer the year before, so this diagnosis was quite a shock. Over the course of the next year, he had five operations and four rounds of chemotherapy. His cancer had spread to his lung, and he lost his ability to conceive children naturally.
A musician, he turned to music to cope. He wrote seventeen songs and created a musical called "Turning Thirty," which debuted in October 2008. The live debut raised $1,000 for the American Cancer Society, and resulted in a CD and a DVD.
Tom has been cancer free for nine years, and he and his wife now have three children. He works for the American Cancer Society as Director of Information Delivery.
On this track, in addition to Tom, featured singers include Kristi Budd, Pam Duncan and Jose Cordero. The band features Tom on piano, Lee Nunn on bass, Adam Coletta on guitar, Lee Hansen on saxophone and Talmadge Hickman on drums. The live recording of this song is by Derek Ennis. Mixing and mastering by Tom Willner.
Life is Good: Song written by cancer survivor to celebrate his recovery More >
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Life is Good (return to audio clip)
This song, "Life Is Good," is a recording from the live debut performance of Tom Willner's musical called "Turning Thirty." He wrote this musical, which includes seventeen songs, about his experience with testicular cancer. "Life Is Good" is both the opening and closing song, and was designed to have a different significance based on whether sung before or after having cancer. As Tom says, "Ultimately, it sums up my new perspective on life after having cancer, which is basically that one should enjoy every moment of life regardless of whether it is easy or difficult, good or bad, right or wrong."
