Country singer Coffey Anderson has opened up for the first time about the moment his wife Criscilla was given her devastating stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
Anderson whose own mother died of lung cancer when he was just 10-years-old, told People: ‘Life is not fair, but God is always good.’
Mom-of-three Criscilla, 39, was first diagnosed with colon cancer in 2018. She was told by a doctor within the last few weeks that the disease has now spread and is ‘growing up her back’.
Coffey, 40, said: ‘When you say that you will be there for each other through thick and thin and through sickness and health, you have to mean it.’
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Country singer Coffey Anderson has opened up for the first time about the moment his wife Criscilla was given her devastating stage 4 c@ncer diagnosis. The couple are pictured in 2017
Criscilla pictured with the couple’s children Ethan, eight, Emmarie, six, and Everleigh, two
Criscilla, a dancer, first began feeling ill in May last year. When she was eventually hospitalized with severe stomach pains doctors diagnosed her with colitis and she was given antibiotics.
But when the pain continued she ended up back in ER. When doctors tried to do an emergency colonoscopy they found a tumor.
WHAT IS COLON C@NCER?
Colon cancer is a c@ncer of the large intestine (the colon).
Usually, it starts with polyps, which are small clumps of cells.
Gastroenterologists can see them in a colonoscopy because they are raised off the surface of the colon like a mole.
Symptoms include:
- Blood in your stool or rectal bleeding
- Stomach cramps
- Persistant gas
- Never feeling like you have emptied your bowels
- Exhaustion
- Weight loss
- Change in bowel habits that persists for more than a month
People with stage 1 tumors have a survival rate (living five years or more) of 80-95 percent.
At stage 2, the survival rate is 55 to 80 percent.
At stage 3, it’s about 40 percent, and at stage 4 it’s about 10 percent.
It was then she was told she had stage 3C colon c@ncer.
In a devastating Instagram video Criscilla opens about the moment she was told her c@ncer had spread.
Breaking down in tears she said: ‘It was really hard to hear the doctor say that he doesn’t think it’s curable. He thinks it’s treatable.
‘And that wrecked me. I’ve been crying all day because I have three babies that need their mom.
‘And I have a husband who lost his mom to cancer at a young age and he shouldn’t be losing his wife too.’
Criscilla told People: ‘The cancer has spread throughout my para-aortic region and has begun growing up my back.
‘My ultimate goal is to be in remission and have it not be chronic but be in a situation where it can be completely healed.
‘The ideal, if that cannot happen, would be to keep it maintained and have it not spread any further for the rest of my life.’
The couple, who live in California with their children Ethan, eight, Emmarie, six, and two-year-old Everleigh, met at church and began dating in 2008. They were married a year later.
Criscilla, who is about to start three months of chemotherapy at City of Hope National Medical Center, says her husband ‘never lets her see’ he is upset.
She adds: ‘He just tries to keep smiling.’
Doctors have told the pair Criscilla’s cancer is ‘treatable, but not curable’.
Mother-of-three Criscilla, 39, was first diagnosed with colon c@ncer in 2018. She was told by a doctor within the last few weeks that the disease has now spread and is ‘growing up her back’. Anderson’s mother died of lung cancer when he was just 10-years-old
The couple, who live in California with their children Ethan, eight, Emmarie, six, and two-year-old Everleigh, met at church and began dating in 2008. They were married a year later
In a devastating Instagram video Criscilla opens about the moment she was told her c@ncer had spread. Breaking down in tears she said: ‘It was really hard to hear the doctor say that he doesn’t think it’s curable. He thinks it’s treatable’
She says of her husband and children: ‘When we are all together, everything is okay again.’
Anderson adds: ‘There are a lot of moments that you can never prepare for. I mean, I never thought I would be helping Criscilla brush her teeth or get to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
‘But we are willing to do it for each other. Each of us are giving 100 percent.’
He adds: ‘I hate the smell of hospitals.
‘I was 10 years old when my mom was going through her treatments, and I can still remember that smell.
‘But I can also remember how my dad took care of my mom, and how he was the one carrying her to the bathroom and washing her back. So now, I’m taking care of my wife.’
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