- Raymond Love
Prostate Cancer Survivor
Prostate Cancer Survivor
Raymond Love: Prostate Cancer
These days, Raymond Love is exactly where he wants to be—at home in San Angelo, looking out over Lake Nasworthy with his wife, and welcoming visits from their daughters and granddaughters.
Retirement has brought a different rhythm than the years he spent farming cotton and peanuts in West Texas, but not a slower one. His days are still full: church, time with family, RV trips, and long afternoons on the lake spent water skiing, wakeboarding, and making memories with the people he loves most.
"This is one of my favorite places to be," Raymond says of the view from home.
For Raymond, faith, family, and staying connected to the people around him have always mattered most.
That's why, when his prostate cancer returned, he and his wife made the difficult decision to leave home and temporarily relocate four hours away in search of the right treatment—one that could help him return to the life they cherished.
In 2019, routine blood work revealed a sudden rise in Raymond’s Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) levels. Further testing confirmed prostate cancer, and he soon underwent surgery. The outcome was encouraging: his margins were clear, and for a time, it seemed the cancer was behind him.
For the next six years, life moved forward. Then, in April 2025, during a routine follow-up appointment, Raymond learned his PSA levels had risen again.
“When I saw that the levels had gone above normal, that gut feeling hit me right away,” Raymond says. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh no. This cancer is back.’”
His doctors recommended traditional radiation close to home in San Angelo, but Raymond wanted to better understand his options before moving forward. He began asking questions, doing his own research, and talking with others — and that search led him to something he hadn’t previously considered: proton therapy.
What stood out to Raymond was the precision. Proton therapy is an advanced form of radiation treatment designed to target tumors while helping limit unnecessary radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. For Raymond, that precision mattered on multiple levels. As someone facing recurrent cancer, he found reassurance in knowing treatment could be carefully focused where it was needed most. And as a prostate cancer patient, he also appreciated that nearby structures such as the bladder and rectum could receive less radiation exposure during treatment.
As he continued to learn more, Raymond and his wife found Texas Center for Proton Therapy in Irving, one of only two proton therapy centers in Texas. Though it was a distance from their home in San Angelo, an encouraging phone consultation with board-certified radiation oncologist Andrew K. Lee, M.D., MPH gave them confidence they were heading in the right direction. Soon, they were preparing not only for treatment, but for a temporary move to Irving.
Before Raymond could begin treatment, another serious health issue caused his journey to take an unexpected turn.
Doctors determined that his aortic valve needed to be replaced, and he underwent a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). While the procedure itself was considered minimally invasive, what followed was far more serious.
"After the procedure, a complication at the access site led to internal bleeding," Raymond explains. "I lost five units of blood, but by the grace of God I made it through."
The complication delayed his cancer treatment by a month and added yet another challenge to an already difficult chapter.
"But God intended for me to stay here,” Raymond says. “And after that, I knew I just needed to keep moving forward, no matter what."
In December 2025, Raymond and his wife left San Angelo for Irving so he could begin proton therapy.
With help from his care team, they settled into a suite across the street from the treatment center and quickly found a temporary rhythm.
"Living there wasn’t home, but it was comfortable," Raymond says. "There was everything we needed—grocery stores, restaurants—and we were able to live as normal a life as we could while we were there.”
Under the care of Dr. Lee, Raymond began treatment for his prostate cancer. After everything he had been through, especially the complications from his heart procedure, he wanted to move forward carefully.
“I didn’t want to take any chances,” he says. “After what I’d been through, I was cautious.”
The care team understood that. They adjusted where needed, respected his concerns, and helped him feel confident that his prostate treatment would not interfere with his recovery.
“They were very kind about it,” Raymond says. “They didn’t try to push me or make me feel bad. And the treatment itself did not affect my heart at all.”
Raymond’s experience with proton therapy exceeded his expectations, but it was the relationships that surprised him most.
Inside the center, he formed a strong connection with members of the care team, including radiation therapist Andrew Parisi.
“He’s such a special young man,” Raymond says. “For some reason, I was on his schedule a lot, and we built a friendship. He was always kind, always encouraging—just a really good person.”
Andrew remembers Raymond just as fondly.
“Mr. Love brought a steady presence with him every day,” Andrew says. “Even after everything he had been through, he showed up with a positive attitude and a willingness to connect with the people around him. Patients like him remind us why we do what we do.”
But the care team wasn’t the only source of support. Some of Raymond’s most meaningful connections were formed in the waiting room.
“We probably had eight to twelve people at different times who got to know each other,” Raymond says. “We’d sit there talking, laughing, just enjoying each other’s company.”
One moment, in particular, stayed with him.
“There was a little lady in her 80s who said, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with us—we’re all sick, and here we are, laughing with each other.’ And she was right. That’s exactly what it felt like.”
That sense of connection carried them through treatment. On the day Raymond completed care, three members of that group rang the gong alongside him. Another former patient even made the hour-long drive to stand beside him and present his certificate.
“That was a real blessing,” Raymond says. “You don’t expect to make friendships like that in a place like that—but we did.”
Like many patients exploring proton therapy, Raymond began treatment with questions — and a healthy dose of uncertainty.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “You wonder if it’s going to hurt, if it’s going to be hard to go through.”
But for Raymond, the experience turned out to be much easier than he had imagined.
“It was actually very easy,” he says. “The hardest part was just getting positioned exactly right and lying still—and I did that 39 times.”
His side effects were minimal. He experienced some mild skin darkening where the proton beam entered, similar to a light suntan, along with some fatigue and weakness during treatment—but nothing he wasn’t able to overcome.
“It never hurt, never bothered me,” he says. “We could just see it, and even that has faded away. The fatigue and weakness ended once treatment was done.”
After everything his body had already been through, that sense of ease mattered. It allowed him to keep moving forward with confidence.
For anyone facing a diagnosis and weighing their treatment options, Raymond offers straightforward advice:
“Be your own advocate. Do your research and see what options are right for you. And try to go in with a good attitude. It helps.”
But he also encourages something less expected — something that made a lasting difference during his own treatment journey.
“When you’re in the waiting room, waiting for your treatment, put down your phone. Talk to those around you. Make friends,” he says. “You’re all in the same boat, and that fellowship means more than you realize at the time.”
Today, Raymond is back where he most wanted to be—at home in San Angelo, surrounded by the life he and his wife built together over decades.
Looking back, he believes the journey deepened his appreciation for the things that matter most. The diagnosis, the heart surgery, and the temporary move across Texas didn’t change his priorities.
If anything, they strengthened them—reinforcing how much he values being home, staying connected to the people he loves, and making the most of every day.
He also feels reassured by the decisions he and his wife made throughout his treatment journey with Texas Center for Proton Therapy.
“I’m sure we chose the right path,” he says. “From choosing proton therapy to the treatment itself and the people we met along the way, it was the right decision for me. That’s something I’ll always be grateful for.”
The information included in this testimonial is based on one patient’s unique experience and is not intended to represent all patient outcomes or expectations.
