“The best thing you can do for yourself is to think positive.”

Even after losing half a lung to cancer, Harry Burlock can still do the cha cha. The active 66-year-old likes to go out dancing every Saturday night with his second wife Fran. “I like the quick step best,” says Harry. “But I run out of breath doing the samba and jive.”

Back in 1989, Harry was diagnosed with lung cancer. At the time, Harry’s first wife had bone cancer and she encouraged him to take care of himself and to go for a regular check-up. As Harry tells it, he had smoked “since Adam was a cowboy” so his doctor had ordered an X-ray of his lungs. A small shadow was detected and Harry was sent to a specialist who later diagnosed it as lung cancer.

Harry underwent an operation to remove his cancer. “I was upstairs getting half a lung removed and she was downstairs getting treatment for her cancer.” Unfortunately, Harry’s first wife did not survive. “It was a toss up who would go first,” says the Moncton, New Brunswick native.

Harry’s cancer came back a year later but with subsequent radiation treatments, his cancer was beaten. Harry considers himself fortunate to have survived his cancer twice. “That’s why I enjoy life so much today. When I wake up, I put both feet on the ground and say, ‘Good morning world!’ ”

He credits his survival to “thinking positive and lots of good prayer.” Harry attends church regularly. In fact, that’s where he and his second wife Fran went on their first date. Harry and Fran have been married for 14 years now and share 6 grandchildren between them.

Since beating his cancer, Harry is a regular volunteer for the Canadian Cancer Society’s CancerConnection program, which provides peer support to people with cancer. “I just let them talk. Lots of times they want to get it off their chests. They just want to talk to someone who understands.”

Today, the retired truck driver enjoys ice skating, bowling, barbershop singing, playing guitar and carving fiddles as hobbies. He learned how to carve “by trial and error”.

Harry says that although he “can’t run down to the end of the street and back” since having half a lung removed, he can do almost everything else within moderation. “I plan on living at least another 20 years. I want to do just as much as I can.”