Thousands of you have seen and shared Tim Grimes’ good news video of him dancing in the halls of the University of Kansas Hospital.
Now thousands of you have already seen his newest dancing video, a love letter to KC with Mayor Sly James among the new friends joining in and dancing with Grimes all over downtown.
Downtown KC is the place to be!! #downtownkcmo #notgoinganywhere #ilovethistown
Posted by Tim Grimes on Monday, March 28, 2016
All this celebrating comes with the news Grimes shared - the tumors in his brain not only stopped growing, but Grimes said they’re also down 50 percent.
“And that’s when it clicked! Like, we gotta dance,” said Grimes. “And it was like 18 months, almost to the day of my diagnosis, when I was told that I would be dead in 18 months.”
Go back more than a year ago and Grimes, a huge Royals fan, had just been given a grim diagnosis - Stage IV melanoma.
“All from a mole on my back,” he said.
He was given a 5 percent chance and 12 – 18 months to live.
“When we first met, I’m like give me a week. I’m going to Chicago, gonna watch the end of the Royals game then I’m all yours,” said Grimes with his doctor, Gary Doolittle at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.
“Yeah that was a first for me,” said Doolittle.
“By the time I was able to process what was happening, my friends were making some amazing stuff happen,” Grimes said.
Those friends created the hashtag #RoyalsWinForTim, which took off just like the boys in blue. The Royals’ wins in Chicago sent them to that incredible 2014 Wildcard game.
Grimes’ journey and the team have been intertwined ever since.
Support for Grimes spread across the city. He got to be right there for some of the season’s biggest moments with some of its biggest stars. He made some famous friends like Paul Rudd, Billy Butler, and Eric Berry.
Grimes truly has taken his friends on social media on his journey with him, posting serious medical updates along with his dancing videos.
He also talks about the incredible people along the way that inspire him.
It turns out he is the one inspiring his medical team.
“Tim’s attitude is so positive we want him to come to clinic every third day just to cheer us up!” said Doolittle.
41 Action News followed Grimes through one of his days of cancer treatment at University of Kansas Cancer Center. Grimes kept the staff laughing all along the way and all while wearing his #StillHere #NotGoingAnywhere shirt in Royal blue. Even his KU hat has #NotGoingAnywhere embroidered on the back. Grimes said it was a gift from the staff there.
“I’m a big believer in mind-body-spirit issues, and I’m absolutely convinced patients do better when they approach it like Tim has,” said Doolittle. “I don’t know if the science backs that up, but certainly in practice, I feel like I’ve seen that.”
Cancer is unpredictable.
“Everybody is different. Every treatment, every cancer," said Grimes. "For me, honestly, beating cancer was never about getting it out of my body. It was about, you know, not letting it take control of my mind."
Grimes is not cancer free, but he does believe with this new season of baseball, it is all coming full circle.
“So not only do I get to see an Opening Day that I wasn’t supposed to see, but I get to see the Opening Day where we won the World Series!”
------
Lindsay Shively can be reached at lindsay.shively@kshb.com.
