Meet the 59-year-old Midlothian man making waves against cancer

MIDLOTHIAN, Va. -- A Midlothian man is making waves against cancer after battling the disease himself last year.

George Sushkoff doesn’t mind the challenge of a 6 a.m. long distance freestyle in the pool.

“It keeps me in shape, gives me something to look forward to, to compete,” explained Sushkoff.

The 59-year-old lifelong swimmer prefers to spend his time in the water.

In fact, you couldn’t keep him out of the pool until his world changed in April of 2023.

“I went in for a routine colonoscopy, just was one of those things where my regular doctor said, you're due for this,” he noted. “Well, they found something, and a couple days later they told me that it was, in fact, cancerous.”

Doctors immediately put Sushkoff on an aggressive treatment plan for stage two colon cancer, which involved chemo infusions and a port in his chest.

But he was determined to return to his regular swims.

WATCH: His swimming raised money for friends with cancer. Then the doctor called.

“I could not get back in the water until the pump was removed, but then I was back to swimming again, so I was able to keep up the activity level pretty well,” said Sushkoff.

Before his diagnosis, Sushkoff supported and volunteered with Swim Across America, a nonprofit dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer research and treatment.

But during his battle with the disease, he got the chance to experience their patient advocacy work firsthand.

“I was being treated at VCI, but they connected me with Massey, who did their own like second opinion track, and they were able to get together their tumor panel from one group and tumor board from another and kind of advance that diagnosis, upgrade the tumor, so to speak,” he explained.

Sushkoff is now cancer free and able to compete in swim meets again.

“To be able to return to training and return to like normal activity level, it means the world,” he smiled.

Sushkoff credits his routine colonoscopy for saving his life and encourages others to get checked out too.

“I think the early screenings are so important,” he said. “They can catch something that you don't know before it gets out of control, before it gets too much, while it's still treatable. And you know, I'm living proof.”

Sushkoff will be one of the featured speakers at the Swim Across America event being held at Quest Swimming in Midlothian on August 25th.

If you would like to participate or donate to George’s team, click here.

Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for in-depth coverage of this important local story. Anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.