Attending my great friend (and great journalist) Al Weaver’s bachelor trip to Chicago last summer, I met Ryan Tilley. Ryan is a great guy. He’s also an intelligent, composed, and handsome husband and father. Through Al, I had known about Ryan’s twin brother, Mike.
Mike Tilley was diagnosed with colon cancer in July 2021 at the age of 30. As the Mike Tilley Nation Foundation notes, “Just 3 months later, his cancer had metastasized to the liver. Unfortunately, Mike passed away at the age of 31 on August 29, 2022.” Mike will live eternally in the memory of his friends and family. But Ryan’s brother and Al’s close friend is also likely to be a lifesaver.
After all, Mike formed the Mike Tilley Nation Foundation to forge good amid the hardest adversaries. Good of the purest kind: amid pain and anguish, to save other young people suffering from gastrointestinal cancer. More specifically, to help save other young people who receive poor care from their doctors. Ryan continues to honor his brother by managing the foundation today. And the need for this foundation is real.
As with Mike and actor James Van Der Beek, who died earlier this month, there is a clear trend of significantly rising GI cancer rates among young people. Scientists are working hard to identify what’s happening. In the interim, however, far too many primary care doctors are failing cancer sufferers by ignoring the signs of illness. As was the case with Mike, they’re offering diet and stress advice over further investigation. But it goes beyond doctors. Gastrointestinal cancer screening guidelines are also badly outdated. For example, colon screening for those at average risk is recommended only from age 45.
The sad truth: Mike was failed by his primary care doctor. After months of symptoms that grew increasingly worse, his doctor failed to order imaging and other cancer detection tests or refer Mike to a gastrointestinal specialist. When Mike asked explicitly whether he might have cancer, his doctor told him that he was simply too young. A few weeks later, symptoms worsening, Mike and his fiancée attended an emergency room.
Following a CT scan, Mike was again misdiagnosed. This time with Crohn’s disease. But when another doctor reviewed the scan, they suggested a tumor might be present and recommended Mike see a GI doctor immediately. Dr. Krysta Contino expedited a colonoscopy. It showed Stage 3B Colon cancer following the discovery of a baseball-sized tumor.
Had Mike’s primary care doctor been more astute to his professional obligations, Mike might still be alive today. As the Mike Tilley Nation Foundation notes on its website, “Historically it has not been easy for young patients to get approved for a colonoscopy, but by advocating for yourself and communicating with the right doctor about your symptoms could save your life. 67% of young-onset colorectal cancer patients said they saw at least 2 physicians before receiving a diagnosis.”
Mike’s life didn’t end with his diagnosis.
He struck up a friendship with then-Baltimore Orioles player Trey Mancini, as covered by the New York Times. But Mike soon learned that the cancer had spread and become terminal. As Ryan put it, “He talks to me about death, and I know he just wants to talk about it. And I sit there and listen to him, and it’s horrible to hear someone that you love so much discuss that.”
Weaver, a high school friend of Mike’s, describes a guy who oozed charisma and could light up any room he walked into. He also noted that his humor still lives on in the name of the foundation, as “Mike Tilley Nation” was a moniker he created during the COVID-19 pandemic to mock social media influencers to close friends. “I would love to hear him complain about the overhaul of the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff right now and whether he still loves or hates Jalen Hurts,” Weaver said, noting that Mike’s feelings about the quarterback differed by the day.
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I have two siblings. Someone close to one of them lost their mother to this most awful disease. Still, I don’t even want to think about what I’d feel if one of my siblings had terminal cancer.
Perhaps because of Mike Tilley, you and I won’t have to.