Keith Cox Finds Family, Hope in NMHS Cancer Care

Through six years of fighting advanced rectal cancer, Keith Cox has found there’s nowhere quite like North Mississippi Health Services Cancer Care. 

“I just feel more at home,” said the 59-year-old Marietta man.

His NMHS Cancer Care team has walked with him through medical oncology, chemotherapy, radiation treatment, palliative care and support services in Tupelo.
During a recent checkup with his oncologist, Dr. Amit Jain, one of Keith’s infusion nurses came up and gave him a big hug.

“To me it’s like a family,” he said. “You see so much of each other.”

Keith’s cancer journey has taken him to Houston, Texas, and back. He had the specialized surgery he needed at MD Anderson Cancer Center, while NMHS Cancer Care helped him keep living as fully as possible.

“It’s like I have this team fighting for me,” Keith said of NMHS Cancer Care. “I would trust them with everything that needs to be done. I wouldn’t go anywhere else.”

Difficult days

For Keith, 2020 was an incredibly difficult year. 

“It was a perfect storm,” Keith said. “Everything that could happen, happened.”

About six months after his father, Bill Cox, died, he began having increasingly disruptive GI symptoms, including rectal bleeding. That December, he was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer.

“I felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel that month,” he said. His mom and his miniature schnauzer, Declan, kept him moving forward.

Before surgery at MD Anderson in October 2021, Keith had radiation treatment in Houston and chemotherapy in Tupelo to shrink the tumor.

Because of the tumor’s location and size, Keith has a permanent ostomy. Connecting with a volunteer mentor through the Colorectal Cancer Alliance was incredibly helpful for his recovery.

“He really helped prepare me for everything I had to do,” said Keith, who now serves as a mentor for others. “It’s important to have people who are on the same road who can teach us about the speed bumps."

The initial treatment successfully removed cancer from the original site. However, Keith’s first post-surgery scan in March 2022 showed the cancer had spread to his lungs. With metastatic cancer, the focus shifted from cure to containment.

A team around him

As Keith’s diagnosis changed, so did the kind of care he needed, but he never felt like he had to navigate metastatic cancer alone.

“My doctors and nurses have been amazing,” Keith said. 

At NMMC Hematology Oncology in Tupelo, Dr. Jain and the infusion team have helped guide chemotherapy and ongoing treatment decisions, answering questions and adjusting care as Keith’s needs changed.

Palliative care specialist Dr. Lindsey Hinton helped Keith focus on quality of life, symptom management and the realities of living with cancer over time.

“The biggest thing I’ve found is that there’s always hope,” Keith said. “I can call when I have a problem or a need. Someone is going to help me figure that out.”

When radiation treatment became part of the plan for cancer that had spread to his lungs, NMMC Radiation Oncology, under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Hinton, helped Keith continue much of his care close to home.

Since completing radiation therapy in December 2025, Keith’s scans have shown the cancer in his lungs remains stable without any additional rounds of chemotherapy.

"No matter what my outcome is in life, I have peace that my faith will carry me through the hard times as well as the good."
 

Supported by his village

Keith continues to lean on his village — his friends, neighbors and the people who have become chosen family along the way. 

When treatment was especially taxing, neighbors and friends mowed his lawn and drove him to appointments. His ACCO work family checked on him, encouraged him and made sure he knew he was not alone.

“It’s hard to ask for help and to have to rely on people,” Keith said. Over time, he has learned that support is part of survival, too.

Keith kept working as an ACCO sales representative as long as his health allowed before medically retiring this summer.

“Now I’m catching my breath,” Keith said. “I’m looking forward to getting everything in order.”

That next chapter comes with grief, too. Keith lost his mother, Edith Cox, this spring after years of steady love and encouragement. His miniature schnauzer, Declan, remains a constant companion.

“He’s my child with fur and four legs,” Keith said.

Whenever he gets the chance, Keith advocates for colorectal cancer screening and prompt attention to GI symptoms.

“The safest thing to do is have a colonoscopy,” Keith said. “It might not be anything. But if there is something, early detection means better outcomes.”