SWLA cancer survivors honor Ben Terry’s legacy, positive message

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - We continue to receive messages about how Ben Terry shaped lives in Southwest Louisiana. Some even say his positive mindset and unwavering faith helped them in their own cancer journeys.

His spirit continues to live on and will never be forgotten.

“Ben to me was always so humble. It was never about him – he came on board to the American Cancer Society as a volunteer and he joined our relay for life committee, and he was never worried about anything we asked him to do,” Registered Nurse Karen Seal said.

Selfless was one of the many words Seal used to describe Ben. She said he became a volunteer years before he was ever diagnosed with cancer himself.

“He won his battle in so many ways. He touched the hearts of so many survivors and caregivers,” Seal said.

When he was diagnosed in 2020, cancer survivor Fay Brooke said it was Ben’s positive mindset that helped her along the way.

“I was there two days a week and so you got to see some of the same people and meet other people. The common thing was this community and Ben and his response. We could see that when we would watch him or look at his post, and we would share that actually in the chemo bay with each other. So he was always the center of some conversation in that chemo lab and just how he let his faith help carry him through and that we can do that too,” Brooke said.

And just like Ben was a source of motivation for Brooke, she hopes to be the same for others.

“So to have other examples, from that, I try to be that other example for other people,” she said.

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