It was early January 2020 and Ben Osmow, then just 27 years old, was wrapping up a busy workday before heading for a long overdue vacation. Back then, he was the Director of Franchising and Operations at his family’s business, Osmow’s Shawarma restaurants, and had been really looking forward to some time away from his rewarding but oftentimes hectic career. He was about to leave the office when his doctor called him to follow up on the results of a scan he had done on January 2 of that year. She was adamant: “You cannot get on that plane,” she said. Instead of boarding a flight to the tropics, Ben headed to Trillium Health Partners’ Credit Valley Hospital for an emergency chemotherapy session that would kick-start a six-month-long cancer battle.
Two years prior, in 2018, Ben began having severe stomach pain that would pop up seemingly out of nowhere. Over the years, various doctors ordered tests and suggested root causes of his pain. He did a complex allergy test that screened for over 130 potential allergens – all of them coming back negative. One doctor misdiagnosed him with a common stomach infection called Helicobacter pylori.
Another evening, he was playing basketball with his friends and could hardly breathe, his face growing increasingly red by the second, every vein popping out, a strange occurrence for someone who had played university-level football and was otherwise very physically fit. Ben had a myriad of ultrasounds, X-rays, endoscopies and even a colonoscopy to try to find the underlying cause of his symptoms. It was the latest X-ray that revealed a mass, spurring his doctor to refer him to Credit Valley Hospital for a PET scan. Credit Valley Hospital finally gave Ben a definitive diagnosis: he had a 23 centimetre cancerous tumour on his right lung, caused by B-Cell Lymphoma, a cancer that forms in white blood cells called lymphocytes and can spread to other areas of the body. While terrifying, it gave Ben a path forward and explained the difficulty breathing and the extreme pain that had plagued him throughout his late twenties.
Ben’s treatment plan consisted of six rounds of chemotherapy and 14 rounds of radiation. Throughout his treatment, Ben vowed to keep a routine. “I lived every day pretty normally besides my chemotherapy haircut, but of course some days were tougher than others.” Ben went into the office every day, and would bring his laptop and work remotely when he had to come to the hospital for treatment, taking meetings and making calls while he spent long days with the staff at Credit Valley Hospital, who he described as phenomenal. Ben’s birthday on July 17 also marked the completion of his treatment, which he celebrated by providing a catered lunch for his health care team from his family restaurant.
Today, Ben is feeling great and continues to work at Osmow’s Shawarma, currently as the CEO & Head of Franchising, while trying to give back to his community and the hospital that saved his life. Ben says cancer patients or people with loved ones going through treatment will reach out to him for advice, and he is happy to lend a listening ear. More recently, through his family’s business, Osmow’s Shawarma, Ben donated over $18,000 worth of flat screen TVs to Credit Valley Hospital’s Oncology Program, replacing the very old models, to help improve the patient experience.
Of the whole ordeal, Ben is extremely positive, saying, “The experience was one that I embraced as a life lesson, be grateful and be courteous to all. This is why I wanted to come back and donate to the oncology program to help others have a better experience during a very difficult time.”
Inspired by Ben and want to give back to Trillium Health Partners’ Oncology Program too? Visit our website.