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Daniel Baldwin, founder of Cherish Your Package, and his mother Sue.

Northville man spreads awareness of under-the-radar testicular cancer

By Tim Smith | Photos by John Heider

Most “twentysomething” men merely disregard some lower back pain or a small lump on the neck as nothing to worry about.

Some might explain those away as being the aches and pains of playing sports or being physically active. Others of that age group, thinking they are invincible, might just disregard such symptoms altogether.

Daniel Baldwin, a 24-year-old Northville resident, did just that for a few months in 2021 – having discovered his symptoms in March of that year. He figured doctors might tell him to go into a stretching regimen or have the lump on his neck removed.

So he put off seeing a doctor. But finally, with parental prodding from Sue and Scott Baldwin, he had his medical concerns checked out. The diagnosis, rendered the day before Thanksgiving, came back as stage 3A of testicular cancer.

“That (the diagnosis) was kind of an eyeopening moment for sure,” Baldwin noted. “I was not expecting anything serious and that really shook me quite a bit. I didn’t exactly know how to deal with it, but luckily my mom was with me in the doctor’s office and was there to … let me know everything was going to be okay.”

Nearly a year after learning about his illness and now in full remission, Baldwin has launched Cherish Your Package, an awareness-building non-profit organization designed to educate and empower young men to monitor their health.

The news could have been worse for Baldwin had he waited much longer. Although stage 3A is serious, it is not as daunting as stage 3B or 3C (the most severe stage).

“Doctors described to me that it starts in the testicles and the lymph nodes and goes up through your back, to your neck and then down to your chest,” he said. “That’s the route that it takes. I had two enlarged lymph nodes on my back and one up in my neck and they classified it as stage 3A. When it goes up to 3C, that’s when it gets really bad.”

HOLIDAY BLESSINGS

Because the outwardly healthy looking 2015 Northville High School graduate and multi-sport varsity athlete then was spared the gut punch of a stage 3B or 3C diagnosis, and given that the next day was Thanksgiving, he opted to count his blessings.

And good fortune came calling, too. It had only been a few weeks since Daniel moved out of his Detroit apartment and back home with his parents.

“There’s no such thing as perfect timing, obviously, with this kind of diagnosis,” he said, managing a slight chuckle. “But it all worked out well where my lease had ended. If I wasn’t living at home, I probably would have just put it off for a little while longer saying ‘Hey, this is just something I can punt down the road.’”

According to Sue Baldwin, “he said ‘I’m going to make lemonade out of lemons,’ from the very get-go.”

Within a week or two, Baldwin began his chemotherapy treatment, comprised of three seven-day cycles, all at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. Surgery would soon follow.

Nearly a year later, he and his 501c3 are going strong. In January, he launched his website (www.cherishyourpackage.org), augmenting that with an active social media presence and a sprinkling of fundraising/ awareness-building events.

Baldwin now has completed chemo. His hair is back and so are the 25 pounds he lost after surgery.

But he sports a scar from his chest down

Daniel Baldwin founded Cherish Your Package to raise awareness about testicular cancer.

to below his belly button, a permanent reminder of the six-hour surgery he underwent to remove an impacted testicle and tumors from his abdomen.

“That’s another thing, if I would have caught it earlier it would have just been a quick outpatient surgery,” said Baldwin, underscoring why it is crucial for young men to not put off medical attention if they suspect something might be wrong.

“It (testicular cancer) is not something that’s top of mind, you think that everything is temporary and it will fix itself. But that’s not always the case.”

Helping advance the vision and mission of Cherish Your Package was a first-annual golf outing at Northville Hills Golf Club on Aug. 5, which drew 27 foursomes and netted more than $10,000 for the organization’s coffers.

The bulk of that money was funneled back into University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, recognized as a top treatment and research organization pertaining to testicular cancer. Baldwin’s oncologist, Dr. David C. Smith, is on the Rogel staff.

Some of the golf outing proceeds were sent to Imerman Angels, a global nonprofit which brings together cancer patients, survivors and caregivers. The organization provides a common platform to share experiences and lend encouragement.

Also a hit was a recent wristband challenge. Baldwin displayed a purple wrist band (the color for testicular cancer awareness) with the organization slogan “No One Fights Alone” and Baldwin’s initials (DCB) on the outside and the Cherish Your Package website address on the inside.

The wristband is a conversation starter, something that prompts questions from strangers. “Once they ask the question you can open it up a little bit more.”

LET’S DISCUSS

Another characteristic concerning testicular cancer that Daniel Baldwin wanted people to rid themselves of through his organization was the stigma linked with the disease, namely reluctance or refusal to even bring up the topic.

Hence, he decided to call his organization Cherish Your Package – a crafty, wink-anda-nod phrase that tends to lighten moods and encourage frank discussion.

“Knowing it starts in high school, even younger, you got to find something that will really attract and make it something you feel comfortable talking about,” Sue Baldwin emphasized. “I can also share that family members were like ‘How do you feel (about) your son using that as a name?’ I said if you look at the target audience and look at trying to make it a comfortable conversation, what would be better?”

Approximately one in 250 men between ages 16-34 are identified with testicular cancer. But chances of dying from it remain low (less than 5%), so long as it is discovered in its early stages. Thus far in 2022, according to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 9,900 new cases of testicular cancer have been diagnosed with approximately 460 deaths reported.

“That’s one of the benefits of having a clever, fun name,” chimed in Daniel Baldwin. “It was something I was uncomfortable talking about at first. Now, I’ve kind of opened myself up to ‘Hey, this is something that happened and it’s common.’ There’s no reason to be shy about it if it’s something that can really impact your life.”

Sue Baldwin stressed that through efforts such as Cherish Your Package, the topic won’t be a painful one for many to breach.

“I think that if he (Daniel) could wave a magic wand, he would want for the conversations about TC to be as comfortable (for men) as the conversations about self-exams and breast cancer are (for women),” she said. “I think when we first started thinking about self-exams it was kind of a taboo subject. And now, it’s no big deal.”

Response to the Cherish Your Package initiative has been heartwarming and at times comes from unexpected places.

“I had the mom of one of Daniel’s high school lacrosse teammates come up to me and say ‘My son heard about Daniel, he had a concern, and I just wanted you to know he went in to the doctor to get checked,’” Sue Baldwin recalled. “I thought, that’s the perfect example of you never know where the message will go.”

However that message is delivered, breaking barriers of communication about an under-the-radar disease is exactly what Daniel Baldwin hopes to accomplish with Cherish Your Package.

For more information about Cherish Your Package, visit www.cherishyourpackage.org.

Daniel Baldwin learned he had testicular cancer after prodding from his mother, Sue, to go see a doctor after experiencing lower back pain.