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(WJW) – February is National Cancer Prevention Month and a good time to remind you about the importance of early detection.

What better way to do that than by checking in on one of our favorite survivors, Tracy McCool‘s husband, John.

For three years and four months, John has been battling the fight of a lifetime. We’ve followed him every step of the way, from his initial diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer, through treatments and surgeries and now, just making it through everyday life.

John has become a regular fixture at the Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center. He says at first, he didn’t understand the environment, but wanted to make sure they knew his name.

Alongside his family, John says having support from doctors and nurses at the clinic is a huge help, especially through the more difficult procedures.

Last year, he went through an intense gamma knife surgery.

More recently, he had to get his back re-radiated after some tumors up his spine started to grow.

For Tracy and John, colon cancer is something they will be treating the rest of John’s life. He’s a fighter by nature and cancer is the toughest opponent he’s ever faced, but he’s not letting that scare him one bit.

“I wanted to see what the record was. What was the record for how long somebody lived with stage four cancer like I had in all the little places it had, what is it? Metastasized or whatever and it was something like 17 years or 18 years. I was like ‘eh, I’ve got to crush that record.’ So I’m going to crush the record and yeah, sign that Guinness book,” John said.

Learn about the latest step in his journey in the video above.