At the lowest part in his life, Holland’s Chris Book needed a laugh.

Diagnosed in March 2019, Book, 36, is fighting stage four leiomyoscaroma, an aggressive type of cancer that attacks smooth muscle. In his case, it began in his abdomen before spreading to his lungs and liver.

Chemotherapy has kept the growths from advancing and while doctors haven't given him a timeline of the disease, he knows what he's facing.

"From what I've read online, five years more would be a blessing," he said.

After a 22-week hospital stay, he turned to an online source for support — the message board, Reddit. Specifically, a subgroup called RoastMe.

Reddit features a variety of topics where users can post to subgroups and engage with other users, anything from politics to sharing pet photos. In the RoastMe group, a user posts a selfie, allowing others to fire off one-liners and jokes, “roasting” them over the photo.

Imagine if the Dean Martin Roasts or Comedy Central Roasts of celebrities went online.

While some of the jokes can sting, for Book, it was finding his humor again.

“This was a chance to let myself, be myself,” Book said. “I’m always kind of outgoing and thought I could get some laughs out of it.

“Within an hour, I could see something was going on there.”

Fighting a rare stage four cancer called leomyosarcoma. Make me feel worse. fromr/RoastMe

The jokes started flying.

“Some compared me to a country bear,” Book said. “Others said I looked like Jack Black or Seth Rogen.

"Some people just don’t understand the power of laughter and to make fun of yourself and look at a situation in a different way."

What really overwhelmed Book wasn’t the harshness or tone, but the tsunami of encouragement from strangers. People from around the world offered their kindness and love to someone they had never met.

Others who beat cancer or were living with it rallied around him. Soon, he had hundreds of direct messages from fellow Redditors lending support.

As of Tuesday, Feb. 25, his post had received more than 37,000 "upvotes," or likes, with more than 4,700 comments.

“I’m still having conversations with a lot of them,” Chris said. “They were very supportive and inspirational to me.

“We’re showing the world we’re out there. It’s such a rare disease.”

His post gained online traction elsewhere too. Other social media outlets like Instagram soon carried his photo and story.

TheChive.com, an entertainment site, picked up on his story as well, linking to his GoFundMe page. Within 36 hours, his GoFundMe page went from $650 to more than $15,000. As of Wednesday, it was approaching $17,000.

And Chris's post also served another purpose — putting focus on leiomyoscaroma.

"It really lit a fire under me," Chris said. "I needed that boost of humanity and love to feel normal for a bit."

— Contact digital director Brian Vernellis at brian.vernellis@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter, @SentinelBrian.