Peter lives for open mike nights. With his acoustic guitar or five-string banjo in hand, he supplies vocals to the blues, folk, country, and some rock and pop thrown in. He covers songs from Woody Guthrie to the Grateful Dead. Peter says that “no matter what size the audience” he enjoys performing – from his early days in Greenwich Village to now at New England inns, coffeehouses and restaurants.

Over four years ago, the strumming stopped. A colonoscopy and other tests revealed Peter had colorectal cancer.

A patient navigator helped coordinate Peter’s care. He underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments with numerous trips between his home in Madison, New Hampshire and MMC Cancer Institute in Scarborough and at Memorial Hospital in North Conway.

He is grateful that he had the expertise at MMC and the follow-up care close to his home with medical oncologist, Peter Rubin, MD, at Memorial Hospital.

“Peter is strong,” said Dr. Mayo. “His surgery was complex. My goal was to make sure he received the best care possible to get him back to what he likes doing.”

A short time after his colorectal surgery, he also had another procedure to remove cancer from his liver, performed by Timothy Fitzgerald, MD, at the MMC Cancer Institute.

A year after treatments, Peter said his life is more active, and he’s booking gigs to share his talent in a new way — cancer-free. He also believes in sharing the message of talking to a health care provider to determine when a colorectal screening or colonoscopy might right for you.