Colon cancer prognosis

NEW YORK -- News that Charlie Bell had stepped down from his post at McDonald's resonated deeply with Randy Lopez, even though the two men never have met.

Lopez, a 41-year-old foodservice veteran who recently left his post as vice president of marketing for Lake Forest, Calif.-based Del Taco, is a survivor of stage-four colon cancer, the most severe level of the disease.

Lopez, who has been cancer-free for five years, decided to leave Del Taco so he could put his marketing skills to work for the Colon Cancer Alliance, or CCA, based here. One of his goals is to help educate the restaurant industry about the importance of early detection and cancer screening.

"I was misdiagnosed, and it could have been caught earlier," Lopez said of his own battle with the disease, which eventually spread to his liver. He was diagnosed with colon cancer when he was 34 years old while directing marketing efforts for the Buca di Beppo casual-dining chain in Minneapolis.

"Early detection means that you can live longer," Lopez said, adding that colon cancer could be detected through a colonoscopy, which he insisted is an easy procedure despite some misperceptions.

"My hope is not just to offer support to Mr. Bell and his family, but also to have others in the industry learn about colon cancer and to be aware," said Lopez, who has been married for 20 years and is the father of two teenage daughters.

"I'm very fortunate," he said, describing Buca as a "fantastic employer" during the time he was undergoing chemotherapy. "Buca told me to do whatever I needed to do. They said they would help me beat it." He said Del Taco also was his advocate during his stint there.

"When you have supportive people behind you, you can't go wrong," Lopez said. "Mr. Bell and his family need all the support they can get, and I offer my support as someone who has gone through it. The goal is to come out on the other side and to be a survivor."

Lopez's decision to change his career stems from surviving a "terrible prognosis." He says his goal is "to give something back. I want to educate people who have never thought about colon cancer."

Although Lopez is devoting himself full-time to the CCA--which has a Web site at www.ccalliance.org--"you never leave" foodservice, he said. "My first job was as a waiter, and I will always consider myself a member of the restaurant industry," he added.