October 2017 update:<\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley Health Netowrk has shared a story about Rick’s treatment<\/a> — and an accompanying video<\/a>.<\/p>\n Original article published November 2016:<\/p>\n Rick Franzo, department manager for the convenience store on the campus of East Stroudsburg University, will be the first \u201cSurvivor Emcee\u201d of the American Brain Tumor Association\u2019s BT5K in New York City. The 5K race will take place on Sunday, November 13 at Hudson River Park \u2013 Pier 81 at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n In 2009 Franzo was diagnosed with meningioma, a mostly benign brain tumor, the \u201csize of a cheeseburger.\u201d Since then his journey has been constant – a surgery that lasted over 10 hours, paralysis, rehabilitation, and coming to terms with the person he has become. \u201cA brain tumor literally changes the person you are,\u201d Franzo said. \u201cYou have to get used to the new you.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, he walks, works, and lives what he describes as a relatively normal life. Those whose lives he\u2019s touched over the years would call him anything but normal. He is committed to raising awareness about brain tumors. He\u2019s written a book \u201cHow Horseshoes Saved My Life: A tale of two brain tumors\u201d that is required reading for writing composition classes at ESU. He founded Tumor Talk, one of the largest brain tumor\/cancer support groups on social media, and he\u2019s the founder and facilitator of the first brain tumor support group for the Pocono Mountains and northern New Jersey. Franzo is also the creator of Brain Tumor Talk: Worldwide Radio Show<\/em> produced at ESU\u2019s radio station, WESS.<\/p>\n Franzo\u2019s journey has also inspired him to become a motivational speaker. Whether he is speaking with college students at ESU or brain tumor patients, his message is similar. \u201cYou need to do whatever it takes to get where you need to go and achieve your goals.\u201d Franzo reminds his audiences, \u201cYou want to make it through to the other side, because the other side is a pretty good place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s the message he hopes to share with participants on the BT5K. He\u2019ll also be bringing his message back to campus when he speaks to ESU honor students on November 17 at 3 p.m. in Stroud Hall room 113.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rick Franzo, department manager for the convenience store on the campus of East Stroudsburg University, will be the first \u201cSurvivor Emcee\u201d of the American Brain Tumor Association\u2019s BT5K in New York City. The 5K race will take place on Sunday, November 13 at Hudson River Park \u2013 Pier 81 at 9 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2009 Franzo was diagnosed with meningioma, a mostly benign brain tumor, the \u201csize of a cheeseburger.\u201d Since then his journey has been constant – a surgery that lasted over 10 hours, paralysis, rehabilitation, and coming to terms with the person he has become. \u201cA brain tumor literally changes the person you are,\u201d Franzo said. \u201cYou have to get used to the new you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":13202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,42,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news-release","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15065"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17499,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15065\/revisions\/17499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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