Slender like a different person. Nobuyoshi Kuwano, 65, continues to be active as a trumpeter in “Rats & Star,” a pioneering Japanese R&B singer. Since his debut, he has been drinking heavily after every live performance. “I often ate stimulants and fatty foods. My rhythm of life was very disorganized. I was drinking so badly that people who couldn’t stand to watch me would sometimes warn me, saying, “You’re drinking too much.” But I would say, “Shut up! It’s my life, I’m responsible for it! I was so excited. The day after I drank a lot, I often had diarrhea and sometimes constipation. But I never thought I was sick at all.” About two or three years before the discovery of his colorectal cancer, he began to check the location of the nearest restroom to his dressing room first thing when he arrived at a concert venue. “I’d have a bowel movement and go to the bathroom, but I’d only get a little bit of stool that looked like a colicky rabbit turd. Then I would suddenly have diarrhea. Sometimes my bowel movements were so urgent that I couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time, so I had to make sure I knew where the bathroom was first or I would get restless.” Still, he falsely attributed his bowel movements to alcohol. One day, he had a bloody stool. “I always hated hospitals and was reluctant to undergo physicals. So when I had bloody stools, I just assumed it was “hemorrhoids,” he said. But those days didn’t last long. I began to feel dizzy and thought, This is indeed strange. My family said, ‘Please, please, go to the hospital!’ So I finally went to the hospital.” Encouraged by his family, he underwent his first colonoscopy at the age of 63. “I was surprised at how quickly the endoscopy was done and how painless it was. I thought, ‘If this is what it’s going to be like, I should have had it done earlier. At that time, two polyps were found. My doctor said, Next time, we will remove the polyps. There is one polyp that cannot be removed by endoscopy. He informed me that I had colon cancer.” The doctor showed me an image of the colon and said, “You have stage 3b colon cancer (rectal cancer) and will need surgery.” The rectum is a part of the large intestine near the anus, and because the tumor was blocking the passage of stool, I was having colonized stools that looked like rabbit droppings. When I heard that I was going to have surgery, I said, “It’s okay, it’s not too late now, is it?” But his doctor did not shake his head. Instead, he said, “I’ll do my best.” That was the first time I realized how serious the situation was. The family was notified of colorectal cancer together. Kuwano could not hide his shock at hearing the doctor’s words, but his family smiled and said, “We’ve come this far, and we have no choice but to fight! Medical science has advanced, and you will be fine!”  “The family must have smiled to cheer me up. I think that made me determined to fight and not give in to cancer.”