Facing an uphill cancer battle, Gulf War veteran Joe Worthy has a long, arduous road ahead of him.
But he’s fighting to make sure other veterans don’t have to face the same health struggles.
After being diagnosed with stage four metastatic colon cancer in December 2025, Worthy felt deflated. Originally diagnosed in 2022, the cancer had returned. He let friends, family and business associates know in a Facebook post on Feb. 1.
“What I didn’t know when I left the service was that my wartime exposure to toxins placed me in the highest-risk demographic for cancer,” Worthy wrote. “And now, mine has returned. I’m facing it with clarity, strength, and determination.”
He took some time to process his dire situation and realized that while he fights his own cancer battle and fears for the months ahead, he can still help other veterans with their health struggles for as long as possible.
“I’ve taken a much more active approach to advocacy for getting treated, getting screened,” Worthy told 12News.com in Phoenix, Arizona. “I’ve recently joined the board of the Veteran Cancer Network; they’re an organization that is very proactive with pre-screenings and getting providers and clinicians more attuned to veterans’ needs.”
The Veteran Cancer Network advocates for veterans to take early detection of cancerous symptoms seriously and connects them with key healthcare resources.
Gulf War Toxic Exposures
Worthy said in 2026, an estimated 40,000 veterans will be diagnosed with cancer, noting that only accounts for those using Department of Veterans Affairs services.
“That’s just diagnosed, that doesn’t include people who aren’t going to go get seen,” Worthy said. “So, when you’re going out to see a civilian doctor or you go see your VA (doctor), we need to be talking about what we did in the military.”
From burn pits to smoke from oil fires and explosives, Gulf War veterans were exposed to toxic environments in the Middle East in the early 1990s, Worthy included. He served in the Marine Corps for nine and a half years, becoming an infantry soldier. He was there when Saddam Hussein’s regime bombed oil fields, sending large plumes of thick, black smoke into the dry desert air.
“When I was in the Gulf War, we had to take nerve agent pills. They were experimental … no telling what that did to me,” Worthy said. “Plus, sitting under oil fields, being in asbestos-infested barracks, there are all kinds of things that we get exposed to, but we don’t screen (for colon cancer) until we’re 45 years old.”
‘Just a Blood Test’
While the new age for men to get a colonoscopy, which is five years sooner than the previous age of 50, is a step in the right direction, Worthy believes there must be more done to help veterans.
“As military members, we need to be screened sooner,” he said. “So, we’re trying to make sure we’re pushing that screening out there to all veterans as early as possible.”
Worthy said veterans should get screened for colorectal cancer shortly after they leave the military.
“Get screened,” Worthy said. “It’s a blood test; that’s all it is.”
Worthy’s wife, Jennifer, believes it’s important for veterans like Joe to share their stories to raise awareness and maybe save other veterans from a heart-wrenching diagnosis.
“We need you to understand this … the VA is not proactively educating or screening veterans who are 50% more likely to get cancer due to military determinants of health than anyone else,” Jennifer Worthy posted on Facebook. “This fight is now about standing in the gap for the people who once stood for all of us. It’s about refusing to give up when the fight gets hard. It’s about showing up together, so no veteran fights cancer alone or has to find out too late, like Joe. Joe served this country. Now it’s our turn to serve him and the millions like him.”
