Guests/Speakers
Jaymie Knox
Voices of Hope Speakers Bureau Member | ALK+ Survivor & Advocate
Jaymie was diagnosed with stage 4 ALK-positive lung cancer in December 2018 at age 32, newly married and ready to start the next chapter of her life. Her first doctor failed to stage her cancer or explain what lay ahead. She fought for better care and never looked back. Now living in Washington, D.C. area, Jaymie recently fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a foster mom to two young children. She is a passionate advocate for mental health awareness in the lung cancer community and lives by a simple philosophy: “Have your moment, then turn the page.”
James Hiter
Endurance Athlete | Voices of Hope Speakers Bureau Member | Survivor
James brings curiosity, determination, and hard-won wisdom to conversations about living with lung cancer. Diagnosed in 2017 with a rare multicystic presentation, he’s undergone three lung surgeries and now operates on roughly 55% of his original lung capacity—yet he still runs every single day. His journey through multidisciplinary tumor boards, second opinions, and ongoing surveillance gives him an intimate understanding of what patients and caregivers face. James asks the questions patients actually want answered because he’s wondered them himself.
“Have Your Moment, Then Turn the Page”
When Jaymie Knox heard the words “lung cancer” in December 2018, she was 32 years old, newly married, and looking forward to the next chapter of her life. Her doctor didn’t stage her cancer or explain how serious the diagnosis was. It wasn’t until later that she learned she had stage 4 ALK-positive lung cancer — and that the road ahead would test her in ways she never imagined.
Host James Hiter sits down with fellow survivor Jaymie Knox for a candid conversation about the mental health challenges that come with a lung cancer diagnosis, and the real, practical ways they’ve both learned to cope.
The Mental Impact of Diagnosis
Jaymie describes hearing her diagnosis as an out-of-body experience. “Your life flashes before your eyes — all the things you didn’t get to do, all the stuff you still wanted to do,” she says. “When you hear stage 4 lung cancer, you think, ‘Stage 4 is the last one. You don’t really bounce back from that.'”
But Jaymie didn’t stay in that dark place for long. “I’m a really positive person,” she explains. “I always just had this overwhelming sense that something’s going to happen for me. You can have those feelings, but you can’t live there. There’s more to do and there’s more to see. So have your moment and go through it because it’s healthy, but then you got to turn the page and move forward.”
Identifying Triggers and Reframing Your Thinking
Both Jaymie and James open up about the unexpected things that trigger anxiety — from TV shows depicting lung cancer patients to the smell of alcohol wipes on an airplane that instantly transports James back to his infusion center. Jaymie shares that physical symptoms like shortness of breath or wheezing can spark fear, even when there’s a perfectly normal explanation.
Her strategy? Reframe the thought. “Okay, you just came up the steps with the laundry basket. Any normal person is going to wheeze after doing something like that,” she says.
“Putting things into perspective and calming that fear and that anxiety in your head — just talking sense into some of that anxiety — is usually what works.”
The Role of Your Care Team in Mental Wellness
Jaymie’s experience with care teams has varied widely. Her first doctor “dropped the ball,” failing to stage her cancer or prepare her for the journey ahead. But subsequent teams — in South Carolina and now in the Washington, D.C. area — have been attentive and supportive, checking in regularly and creating space for open conversation.
She notes an important gap, though: “Nobody has really asked me, ‘Are you depressed?'” And she offers a gentle caution,
“Strong people also can hide it by pretending that they’re okay.”
If your care team isn’t asking about your mental health, don’t be afraid to bring it up yourself.
Finding Purpose: Fostering, Hobbies, and Living Fully
One of the most powerful ways Jaymie manages her mental health is by filling her life with purpose. She recently became a foster mom to two young children — a one-year-old and a three-year-old — a dream she’d carried long before her diagnosis. “Kids will distract you from having a lung cancer diagnosis,” she laughs. “I’m so busy running behind them and wiping hands and faces that I almost sometimes forget to take my medicine.”
James, who also entered the foster care space during treatment, reflects on the shared drive to make an impact. Other survivors they know have thrown themselves into travel, work, music, and new hobbies. As Jaymie puts it:
“When you get that clock above your head that starts clicking, and you can hear it, you start wanting to do the things that you didn’t do before.”
The Power of Community
Both Jaymie and James emphasize that connecting with other lung cancer survivors is one of the most important things you can do for your mental health. “You could talk to your parents, your family, your loved ones as much as you want,” Jaymie says, “but if they don’t have lung cancer, they don’t understand. All they can do is empathize.”
Talking to someone who truly gets it — who knows what scanxiety feels like, who understands the ache of a surgery site, who shares the weight of the same diagnosis — “makes you feel seen.” It also makes friendship happen faster.
“In the lung cancer community, you go to an event and you’re like, ‘Hey, I have that too.’ And it’s just automatic.”
But community also means loss. “You lose people, and it’s inevitable,” Jaymie says honestly. “It just hurts a little bit more because you see yourself in them. It’s almost like you’re grieving a little part of yourself too.” There’s no trick to handling it — you grieve, and you lean on the people around you.
Scanxiety Is Real — And It’s Normal
Jaymie didn’t have anxiety before her cancer diagnosis. Now, she notices herself becoming irritable and uneasy a day or two before scans. “Scanxiety is real. It happens. There’s nothing wrong with you,” she reassures. “The scans are going to be what the scans are going to be. It does you no benefit to worry about it.”
She also shares how her scanxiety has evolved. Early on, the fear was fueled by having no backup treatment options. Now, with more ALK-positive medications available, she goes into scans knowing her doctor already has a plan. “A bad scan doesn’t mean the end of the road,” James adds. “It just means a fork in the road.”
Jaymie’s advice? “Treat yourself when you’re done. Go get an ice cream. Take the fear out of it and just be.”
A Message for Anyone in a Dark Spot Right Now
“For starters, it’s normal,” Jaymie says. “I’m not going to sit here and be like, ‘Oh, I got this diagnosis and it’s butterflies and rainbows.’ We all go through those periods of darkness. But you can’t live there. This is just one chapter of your book. It’s not your whole entire story.”
Her advice: find something — anything — that brings a little bit of light back into your life. A hobby. A friend. A small joy, a little bit at a time, every day. “Things are going to ebb and flow. You just got to get to the other side of it. So just keep going and you’re going to be okay.”
And if she could go back and tell her newly diagnosed self one thing? “Everything’s going to work out. This is not the end. Keep it moving. You got stuff to do, and you got people to impact and lives to change.”
