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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Bruce Underhay once read a quote he believes to be true.

"Someone shouldn't have an expiry date stamped on them," he said.

Underhay found out in early 2007 he had lung cancer. He didn't want to be stamped.

Bruce Underhay avoided having an expiry date stamped on his life by having 40 per cent of his left lung removed in September 2007. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

"I don't believe in statistics," he said. "I didn't want to know my chances of survival because they don't necessarily ring true. They group people into one category even though they may have different cases."

Underhay started to experience chest pains in January 2007. His doctors thought he might have heart problems and sent him for testing.

"I remember my doctor filling out the form," he said. "Right before he submitted it he decided to check off the box for chest X-ray."

Underhay didn't think anything of it, but that seemingly meaningless mark on a piece of paper would be more important than he could have ever imagined.

"They did the stress test and said everything was fine with my heart so I was happy," he said. "I didn't think anything was wrong until I got a call about a month later."

Underhay was asked to come in for a follow-up test. At that point physicians found spots on his left lung.

"It was really tough when I first found out," he said. "Especially with how fast I lost my mother and my brother."

Underhay lost his mother two weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 1998; his brother after only a few months in 2001. He didn't want to suffer the same fate.

Doctors performed a positron emission tomography, or a PET test, to try and determine the extent of the spots on his lung but were unsuccessful in concluding if the spots were malignant or benign.

"I told them if they weren't able to tell me if it was cancer or not that I wanted that part of the lung removed," he said.

After a six-and-a-half-hour surgery in Edmonton, Underhay had the upper lobe of his left lung removed.

"They removed about 40 per cent of the lung," he said. "It was precautionary, to remove that much of it."

The cancer, he added, "was really early in the stages so I was lucky."

The Canadian Cancer Society reports almost 23,900 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer - the most preventable form of cancer - this year. Only 3,700 will survive.

Today, Underhay is cancer-free. His story is rare.

"I'm very fortunate to be alive today," he said. "I want people to be more aware of just how big lung cancer is, even in non-smokers."

Underhay never smoked a day in his life and said there is a stigma behind lung cancer because of its association with smoking.

"Some people believe you are deserving of it," he said. "They're mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters. They're people just like you and I.

"My biggest fear is a lot of non-smokers have a false sense of security that they can't get it," he said. "There is not enough awareness because there is not a lot of survivors to talk about it."

November was Lung Cancer Awareness Month and Underhay hopes to bring more attention to the leading cause of cancer deaths nationally.

"Most people don't know it's Lung Cancer Month and that's really unfortunate," he said. "Everyone knew it was breast cancer month (in October) and that's great. But I think there needs to be more focus on lung cancer."

Yellowknife has a breast cancer navigator to help patients diagnosed with the illness cope, yet there is no support for people with lung cancer.

"I don't want to be negative towards breast cancer. That's not my point," Underhay said. "They just have an excellent support system around the world."

When first diagnosed with lung cancer, Underhay went looking for support in the city but came up empty-handed.

"There is no support system here in Yellowknife for people with lung cancer," he said. "I had to look to the states to find any sort of peer support group online."

Underhay said the best support site he found is called Lungevity (www.lungevity.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing lung research and offering support to the lung cancer community.

"I want to make people aware of lung cancer and that there is support available out there, you just have to look for it," he said. "For someone who may not have the ability to find information and support it can be really tough."