In 2008, I was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. But thanks to advances in research, I am one of the nearly 15 million cancer survivors living in this country today.

Being a professional athlete, I had always been in great shape. But suddenly I started having all these night sweats. I thought it was just part of getting older, so I reached out to my doctor who ran some tests.

When I first got the news that I tested positive for leukemia, my first call was to my son. He was in medical school at the time and helped me to decipher all the medical jargon., I had a close friend who had died quickly from a very aggressive leukemia and he assured me that there are many different forms of leukemia and it isn’t always a death sentence. He told me that many drugs had been developed over the past decade and they were quite effective for many people.

It is a strange moment when a son is calming his father’s fears and anxieties. The roles are suddenly reversed.

Of course when I heard my diagnosis, I wasn’t as initially hopeful as my son. I saw the cancer as a challenge to my very existence. It’s only natural to frame things up in your mind based on past experiences. My father nearly died from colorectal cancer and I carry the same gene related to colorectal cancer as he did. I watched that disease claim the lives of my grandfather and my uncle, so I already had a very definite perspective on how devastating cancer can be. These were strong men, full of life, just like me.

You see, cancer doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care how many NBA titles you’ve won or how much yoga you do.

I am alive because of advances in science and medicine and the guidance of wonderful doctors. The first drug I was given worked well at first, in spite of serious side effects including severe hand cramping and fatigue. But then, as many cancer patients have experienced, the drug’s effectiveness began to wear off. My doctors switched me to another drug which gave me the response I needed and eliminated those side effects.

If research had slowed down or stopped after the development of one treatment and not the other, I can’t guarantee my disease would not have progressed.

Instead I’m sharing my story with others so they know that they’re not alone. There is hope and many of us with cancer are truly living full and productive lives. Every time we explore a new way to treat a different aspect of the various blood cancers, we’re saving lives and paving the way for further discoveries. There’s been great progress in the past 10 to 15 years across all forms of cancers. And we can’t afford to let that momentum stop now.

Perhaps most importantly, there is a renewed movement to bring about an end to this dreaded disease.

More than forty years ago, we declared war on cancer. In that time, we’ve connected the world through the Internet. Launched a Rover on Mars. And mapped the human genome. I promise you we can end cancer.

I know a little something about winning. It doesn’t happen by accident. It takes discipline, trial and error, tremendous will, proper investment, learning from losses and practice, practice, practice.

The extra pass and the extra effort on defense always gets the job done. In turn, every piece of research builds on another. When the National Institute of Health is underfunded, progress slows and lives are lost. The breakthroughs of the last decade are reason enough to continue investing in cancer research. It positively impacts our economy and all of mankind.

I urge Congress to restore and sustain cancer research funding in honor of all those we’ve lost, all those in the fight now, and for the betterment of future generations.