Robert Brams writes about his battle with brain cancer in the new book, "Forever Optimistic." Brams joined CBS News to talk about the book and his journey.

Robert Graham, a prominent attorney from Washington, D.C., recounts his 11-year experience with brain cancer in his new book, 'Forever Optimistic: Finding Your Best Path and Leading a Life with Purpose.' His journey began unexpectedly after a minor car accident led to a diagnosis that required multiple surgeries and years of therapy. 

Graham credits his resilience and discipline, learned through childhood wrestling, as vital to his recovery. Despite ongoing health challenges and the need for lifelong monitoring, his latest MRI shows his condition is stable, and he hopes his story will inspire others facing serious diagnoses.

New book chronicles man's survival of brain cancer

And you see a book, which I'm going to talk to you about now, because it all starts with a small fender-bender, which then, in a very strange way, led to what approximated a medical death sentence. It's part of Robert Graham's 11-year cancer journey. We cannot do justice to it in five minutes, but we're going to get to as much as we can. The book, Forever Optimistic, fighting brain cancer, fighting your best path—wait a minute—finding your best path and leading a life with purpose. Robert, it's great to have you with us. Thank you, John. Show the crowd this. Check this out. He brought a visual aid. OK? That's 2019, his second brain cancer surgery. Robert, summarize the high or low points as you evaluate them through this 11 years. OK. Well, thanks for having me on the show. So I want to help inspire other people to make it when they're up against a wall, up against a difficult situation. Told they are very likely to die. Yeah. Well, right. And that's how things worked out for me and my family. My family were told, like, I was out of it for—I was, like, off the planet. And about four hours after my surgery, and my wife said, something's going wrong here. And if you don't get this guy in for a scan, I'm going to wake up the whole damn hospital. This was the first time around. First time around. Right. In 2015. And she was right. Turns out, I had a hemorrhagic stroke. I was going to go into a coma. It was insane. And then, after that, she saw everything. I didn't. I mean, but I don't recall, like, floating over my own body. But it was really kind of crazy. And I sort of owe it to the fact that I played sports as a kid. I was a wrestler. I was in ninth grade, lost every single match except one I tied. And then, my senior year, I was undefeated, went to the state tournament, won the divisions. Learned resilience, discipline— Resilience, discipline, all that. And fighting on. And fighting on, and won the finals match to go to the States with a pinning combination, which my coach was saying, don't do it. But those are the things that I really think about in life, even now, 50 years later, that give me the inspiration to move on forward. And I want my audience to know that you are a very successful attorney here in Washington, D.C. And kind of, not the top of the top, but very near the top. Cream of the crop here in D.C. Very successful. And you learned, as many people do, sadly, that you can be at the top of some game, and a medical intervention can take you right down. Exactly. And you've got to find a way to climb back up when you don't have a roadmap. Look, when I—after my first surgery, I couldn't walk, I couldn't think, I couldn't speak. OK? It required years of therapy to come back to life like I am today. People wouldn't notice now, basically, that I have any problem whatsoever. But I do. I get tired very easily, and I'm like the bad cell phone guy where you recharge the battery and it only works for an hour. Give me 10 minutes sleep, and I'm back with you. I said we wouldn't be able to do justice to this, but we've got about a minute, Robert. You got a second diagnosis, had to have a second intervention. What was that like, to think you had not conquered it, but came close to conquering it, and then knocked back down again? Well, you know what? I'm actually surprised that I've been able to deal with the situation as well as I have. And it's really worked out well. After the second surgery, I was walking that night, far different than the first surgery. And I was walking the hills of San Francisco, like three days later. So think 90 days between what happened the first time and the last time. But I want to encourage your audience to recognize that if they're strong, if they really look closely at their successes, that they can beat this. Because now I've gone through an MRI where they have found it to be totally stable. And so that's great. My wife and I are overjoyed, as is my family. So would you classify yourself as cancer-free? I would not. You would not. But you're stable, and it's- I'll have MRIs for life. MRIs for life. But you'll keep monitoring it? Yeah. And you're obviously in a much, much better place. And I'm glad you're here. I appreciate you coming in. Thanks so much. Thank you.

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Ukraine Invasion

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Council of the City of Sydney

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London

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Breakdown