Editor’s Note: In the weeks leading up to the CARE Power Hour Luncheon, GlasgowNews1 is sharing the stories of survivors who show the strength, hope, and impact behind this annual event. Read all stories in the series here.
By James Brown
Glasgow News 1
Allen Angel did not think he would still be here. That was his first thought when he was told he had cancer in December 2021. That thought led him to make some decisions about the future, such as selling his cattle, that he wishes he hadn’t. But it also opened his heart to feelings he did not know he could have.
“I’ve never really been an emotional person,” Allen said while talking about his ongoing battle with cancer. “But one of my best friends told me to never give up.”
Now when he sees someone else in the midst of their struggle with cancer, Allen tells them to never give up.
“I can see it, how they hold themselves. I just want them to know they can do it,” he added. “I want them to know that someone else has done it.”
It doesn’t matter whether Allen sees those people — whether in a grocery store or at the doctor’s office — he gives them that “never surrender” message.
The Journey Begins
Allen Angel always enjoyed working his farm, but one day he notice his left hip hurt.
“It was the week of Christmas. I was working at my daughter’s house. It started hurting,” Allen said. “I didn’t hit it or anything.”
There was a knot on his hip and at first it was thought to be a bone-related issue.
“For two months there I went to a bone specialist,” Allen said, but it did not improve. Then he started having a pain in his chest.
Allen said he went to a lung doctor and they did a CAT scan and “it was lit up like a wildfire.” That’s when he learned he had cancer in three spots in his body — his lung, his hip and his brain.
“When he told me that, it was like my soul went out,” he said.
“All my life I said I wouldn’t do no treatment if I got cancer,” Allen said.
That’s when his friend Terry Henley told him to not give up. “I had a whole lot of support from co-workers, friends and family.”
“My doctor said the treatments had come a long way in the last 10 years,” Allen said.
Allen’s wife Lisa said he entered treatment for the cancer in 2022, and he still must get check ups and immunotherapy today.
Allen said the first wave of treatments was hard on his body. He lost too much weight, and had to take steroids to help him put on enough weight to continue the treatments.
“He had one treatment on his brain, five on his hip and 10 on his lung,” Lisa added.
“That radiation really got me down,” Allen said. The mass on his hip was the size of a baseball, “and they didn’t think it would shrink as much as it did.”
“They say I will never be cancer free, but it’s not growing,” he said.
Allen said he still worked in construction and farmed, but he didn’t believe he would be able to work the farm anymore. So he and his wife decided to sell the cattle.
“I can’t run in case [the cows] charged me,” Allen added. They do still have goats, horses, “and dogs.”
He also retired from working construction, but he found some new hobbies.
The Gnomes have it
Lisa said while Allen was at home recovering from the treatments “he watched YouTube.”
That led him to some new hobbies — making gnomes and wood burning plaques.
Allen Angel found a new hobby while recovering from cancer treatments; making gnomes. Submitted
“When I was first doing the treatments — and I don’t know why — I got into gnomes. Everybody was making them,” Allen said with a laugh. “I made all my nurses gnomes and doctors, for holidays, I made them gnomes.”
“He made little, tiny gnomes out of glove fingers, and then he made sock gnomes,” Lisa added.
“I also made them a plaque …,” Allen said.
“He wood-burned it,” Lisa added.
“… with their name, like Beth’s Kitchen,” he finished. “It took me about all year to do that.”
Allen said he’s still here and has found joy in giving back to the nurses, doctors and staff at T.J. Health Pavilion. They have taken great care of him.
“I helped build that place, and it’s saved my life,” he added.
Allen worked with the construction company that built the health pavilion, and, he said, it’s special for him to go through this cancer journey with the people there.
It also makes him emotional to see others go through cancer, but he has a message for them.
“I don’t know why God kept me here, but I always tell them like Terry told me to never give up,” Allen said. “It is a changing experience to me. You don’t ever think it’s going to happen to you, but it does.”
The CARE Power Hour Luncheon, presented in memory of Geraldine Flowers Glass, will be held Friday, July 24, 2026, at 11:30 a.m. at the T.J. Health Pavilion Community Center. Proceeds from the event benefit Community Medical Care’s Breaking Barriers to Care program, helping local cancer patients with transportation to treatments, nutritional support, mastectomy supplies, wigs, head coverings, and other resources that ease the burden during their fight. This year’s luncheon will feature keynote speaker Tiffany Layne Somerville. Tickets are $50 and are available at tjregionalhealth.org/carepowerhour.
