BUFFALO, N.Y. — Last spring Paul Dublino of North Tonawanda found out he had oral cancer.
"You're scared when you go in there. The doctors tell you what's going to happen to you and stuff like that, but they're reading out of a textbook what's going to happen," Dublino said.
By summer, he began radiation treatments at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, but dealing with the diagnosis for the first time left him with a lot of questions.
"I had met a guy who was 80 or 81 years old and he was at the tail end of it," Dublino said.
He found solace in another patient also receiving treatments.
"He just told me what he had went through," Dublino said.
It didn't take long for Dublino to pass on all the advice to other men fighting the same battle.
"Anything Paul passed down to me, we tried to pass down to Dave. It was a continued cycle of just trying to keep each other going," Nick Morrison of Dunkirk said.
Morrison is 30, Dublino is 73, and David Peek of Cheektowaga is 67.
Despite the age difference, and each of them battling different forms of oral cancer, leaning on each other during more than a month of radiation treatments has led to a friendship they use for extra support on dark days.
"You could see there was a light at the end of the tunnel," Dublino said.
It only makes it that much sweeter they were all able to beat cancer and attend each other's bell ringing ceremonies, as well as hospital staff.
"Oh yeah, there was never a doubt. We knew from our conversations that we were going to be there," Morrison said.
Dublino added: "It's amazing. It was like a roar, the whole hospital."
Those moments are only possible thanks to a simple gesture starting it all.
"It all started off with 'hello' and 'good morning.' Yeah," Morrison said.
It also serves as a reminder to those who receive a diagnosis that you don't have to go through it alone.
"You have a positive attitude and you're hyped up about that, you're going to be able to start talking to people and that's how we all got to know one another and get this treatment and moving on with our lives," Peek said.