F. Guy O’Hazza learned he had a malignant tumor in his neck just three months after open-heart surgery. “I couldn’t believe it,” says the retired real estate developer. Mr. O’Hazza was diagnosed in November 2005 and by the next year, following a treatment program of radiation and chemotherapy at Tunnell Cancer Center, he was cancer free. His wife, Susie, was by his side.

“I think preoccupation is important,” he says.

“I can’t remember a day in bed.” Mr. O’Hazza used to build and collect hot rods. In the mid-’50s he was into sports cars and the Mercedes Benz. Now his passion is his vegetable garden at one of his homes in the Silver Lake area of Rehoboth Beach, where family and friends regularly visit.

“I grow all kinds of vegetables,” he says. “English cucumber, squash, cantaloupes, and tomatoes. And I give them all away.”

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