{"id":849391,"date":"2026-09-16T04:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T04:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/849391\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T04:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T04:46:21","slug":"wife-of-ex-qb-stephen-garcia-helped-uncover-cancer-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/849391\/","title":{"rendered":"Wife of Ex QB Stephen Garcia Helped Uncover Cancer Diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former University of South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia likely has his wife Masha\u2019s curiosity to thank for saving his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had some sporadic stomach pain,\u201d Stephen, 38, told Craig Melvin during a Monday, September 14, appearance on the Today<\/a> show. \u201cI was going to the bathroom often. Just wasn\u2019t ever fully emptied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen said his frequent trips got \u201cto the point where my wife was like, \u2018What are you doing in the bathroom?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After Masha urged her husband to get screened, Stephen was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a shock,\u201d Stephen recalled of how he felt after receiving the news. \u201cBut I think it was just like, \u2018What\u2019s next?\u2019 I wasn\u2019t going to sit there and be like, \u2018Well, I guess I\u2019m dead.\u2019 It\u2019s like, what are we going to do? What\u2019s the game plan? How are we going to beat this thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Masha remembered telling her husband he \u201chad to fight\u201d to stay alive before immediately becoming proactive once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I need to figure out a solution,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cSo I grabbed his phone, ran out the door and called his doctor to get everything in order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen added, \u201cShe probably did save my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen, who played for the Gamecocks from 2008 to 2011, has shared every step of his cancer journey with his tens of thousands of followers on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s brave being this open with his diagnosis,\u201d Masha said. \u201cMen do it in silence. They don\u2019t want to talk about it, no one wants to talk about it. He was just so open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen said the overwhelming response<\/a> to his diagnosis has been \u201ckind of shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that fans still care means a lot,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cI hope they truly understand that. It means the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t
\n Related: Colin Kaepernick Would \u2018Absolutely\u2018 Consider Playing Olympic Flag Football<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tColin Kaepernick would \u201cabsolutely\u201d consider representing Team USA at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles when flag football makes its Olympics debut.\u00a0 \u201cI would have a ball going out there and doing that,\u201d Kaepernick, 38, exclusively told Us ahead of the release of his new book, The Perilous Fight, out Tuesday, September 15. \u201cI [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

After Stephen went public with his cancer diagnosis in May, a GoFundMe was launched<\/a> in his honor, which has since raised over $250,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are navigating a very difficult time,\u201d the fundraiser reads. \u201cEvery message of support and every contribution serves as a reminder to Stephen that he is not in this alone. We are incredibly grateful for the village helping him fight this battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GoFundMe also urged Stephen\u2019s supporters to be similarly vigilant about their own health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cColorectal cancer is often silent in its early stages,\u201d the page explains. \u201cWe cannot stress enough how important it is to prioritize regular screenings and colonoscopies. These preventative measures are life-saving tools that can catch issues before they progress. If Stephen\u2019s story can encourage even one person to schedule their screening, it adds a greater purpose to this difficult fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former University of South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia likely has his wife Masha\u2019s curiosity to thank for saving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[188152,91,88,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-849391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-celebrity-health-scares","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}