Richard D. Parsons has always been in control of his life. As a powerful businessman, Parsons stepped in to replace the racist Donald Sterling as interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers while also boasting a lengthy resume as former chairman of Citigroup and Time Warner CEO.
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But there’s one thing that was out of Parsons’ control – his diagnosis of multiple myeloma (MM).
Last month, Parsons opened up about his ongoing battle with the rare blood cancer in an interview with Fortune Magazine.
“I’ve been now on chemotherapy for quite some time – about a year and a half, closing in on two years – and they’ve really knocked the cancer down,” Parsons explained. “The issue now is how to keep it down.”
Parsons learned of his disease about a year and a half ago. He’s one of the 30,000 or so multiple myeloma diagnoses for African American men every year in the U.S.
Though there is no cure, Parsons is positive he’ll survive this fight. He’s currently participating in a medical trial with the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), which runs studies and tracks MM patients over time. The information and analysis is shared between physicians, patients, researchers and more.
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The study and robust cancer treatments help Parsons remain hopeful, though, this battle is much different than, say, his difficult task of handling the media merger of AOL and Time Warner.
“The foe is one that you can relate to in a way. I sort of know what he’s thinking, what they’re thinking, I can anticipate what they’re going to do because I’m essentially one of them,” Parsons said about his past jobs. “I’m not in control of this [multiple myeloma]. You have to put yourself more in the hands of someone else as opposed to steer your own ship.”
Nevertheless, Parsons is confident that “I got this,” he added.
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