The Suozzi family of Arizona has had to deal with three members of their family being afflicted with cancer in the past eight years.
What are you worried about?
Being late for work?
Your kid's homework didn't get done…again?
Too much month at the end of the money?
Not to minimize your problems, but consider what Ross Suozzi and his family have been through lately.
Suozzi runs a fitness center, Peaks Athletic Club, in Fountain Hills, Ariz., just east of Scottsdale.
Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer — specifically non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Went through the whole nine yards — denial, fear and trembling, treatment, chemo, the works.
Made a full recovery.
Four years ago, his wife Corinna was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Back to the hospital they went, for eight months of treatment.
She survived.
And then last year, his oldest son Lorenzo was diagnosed with leukemia.
He pulled through, too, after receiving a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor.
This is the only family of which Suozzi's doctors are aware with three family members developing three unrelated forms of cancer.
"Cancer is prevalent in our society," Suozzi says, "and with all the environmental factors, it's only going to increase.
"We have about 700 to 1,000 people a day coming to our gym. They all know my family's story. At least once a week, somebody pulls me aside and tells me about a cancer story involving themselves, a friend, or a family member.
"And they're lost. They're worried, they're scared, there's a lot of fear. They don't know what to expect and how to proceed rationally with the news of cancer."
Most people see their diagnoses as death sentences, Suozzi says.
"When people don't understand cancer," he adds, "they really think there is a point of no return. They don't see a lot of hope initially.
"That, I believe, is probably the most important message that I'd like to convey. There's a way to make it through this successfully.
"Not just to fight, but to wake up each day and be positive, and understand that with modern medicine, if you're willing to trust the system that we have today, there's a very strong possibility that you could make it through this."
Suozzi describes his philosophy of recovery this way: "Complete positivity. Be rational. Focus on a positive outcome and contain the negative thoughts while you're seeing or experiencing the suffering."
Corinna Suozzi's form of cervical cancer was severe and life threatening.
"There are a lot of women that don't make it," Suozzi says. "We learned to use positive thoughts and affirmations, and work on a 24-hour basis with yourself.
"Your job is stay alive at that point in time, and nothing else really matters."
Suozzi's second son, Dominic, a standout athlete and a candidate for the U.S. Olympic track team, has witnessed both of his parents and his older brother go through cancer.
"He's now faced with the thought in the back of his mind — is he next?" Suozzi says. "We've tried to instill the same principles to him with his sport that we used in our recoveries. How to overcome the obstacles and be positive."
Suozzi describes 2015 as "an absolute disaster, a train wreck. I did not anticipate Lorenzo to be diagnosed with leukemia. But my commitment to myself for this year is that if nothing happens in 2016, absolutely nothing, I'm fine with it."
The story of how the three family members rallied from cancer is the subject of a book Suozzi will publish later this year.
What is he aiming for with his book?
"If I could assist someone else that was to go through this," Suozzi says, "a family member, a friend, or someone suffering from cancer, and the book could make that journey easier, then that's a success."
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