Colleagues, loved ones rally around local doctor battling stage 4 colon cancer

PINEVILLE, N.C. — A local doctor is swapping his lab coat for a hospital gown after his colleagues diagnosed him with stage 4 colon cancer.

John Zygowiec has been helping people for as long as he can remember. He has been a lifeguard, paramedic, armed forces personnel and now, a doctor at Atrium Health in Pineville.

“Anytime something would happen, I would always be the person who would run to it,” he said.

His wife, Nadine, said he’s always had a heart of service. It’s why she married him 16 years ago.

“That’s just always part of who I have known him to be,” Nadine said.

John was diagnosed in April and learned the cancer was spreading to his liver.

“It was heartbreaking. Like, he’s only 39, so just to hear that completely broke my heart,” said ER nurse Kaila Camilleri, who was there when John got the news.

It’s yet another battle to win after working shoulder to shoulder in the emergency room for the last two years during COVID-19.

Nurse Charlotte Dudley describes it like a battlefield working alongside these two.

“I think on the frontlines of being in this war. It’s like we’ve become family,” Dudley said.

Now, that family is rallying around John. Dudley and Camilleri started a GoFundMe page to help cover medical costs and other expenses while he’s out for the next year in recovery.

He still has three children to care for, a mortgage and half-a-million dollars in student loans.

“A lot of it will be health care obviously and then paying bills that still come due no matter what,” John said.

He said he’s grateful for the support, but he’s already looking forward to feeling normal and walking the halls at work.

“I love my job. I love going to work and you feel like you’re getting taken out during the Super Bowl,” John said.

He is also hoping to use his story to encourage others to get screened. The American Cancer Foundation said colon cancer will be the leading cause of death for 20-to-40 year olds if it goes undetected.

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