“I see things differently now. I dont sweat the little stuff.

Joe Galey’s bout with colorectal cancer was as bad as it gets: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, a colostomy for life. The 67-year-old Allentown man was feeling really low when he switched on the television Sept. 11, 2001. “For the first time since I was a kid, I bawled like a baby,” he says. “I told myself, ‘Joe, you’ve still got a shot at life.’” Crucial to his recovery was the support of his wife, Sue, a hospice nurse. “We had a good marriage, but this brought us much, much closer,” Galey says. He’s also drawn strength from his religious conviction, a cancer support group and his co-workers at Wegmans. “There must be some reason I’m still alive,” Galey says. “I’ll never be president or own a company or get rich. I just focus on being nice and trying to cheer people up a little.”

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