I am Vince Molinari, and welcome back to FinTech TV.
Today I'm joined by George Carmi, who is vice president at JPMorgan, working operationally in security valuations.
He's also a social media personality discussing films, tennis, and more globally on TikTok as Movies and Stuff 14.
And I want to welcome George here to the New York Stock Exchange to share a bit about his story today.
George, welcome to the show.
Thank you very much for having me.
Absolute delight for me knowing your family for decades at this point, and I don't want to embarrass you seeing you grow up a bit and what a great journey here at JPMorgan.
You're out there as a social media personality doing all kinds of things, just living the life.
Unfortunately you get this curveball and the germ.
Yes, you mind sharing what happened?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Back in 2022, I had woken up one morning and you know one of my testicles was about the size of a golf ball, you know, size, hardness.
Went to the doctor, got it tested, and it was an immediate testicular cancer diagnosis.
So initially it was quick and easy.
It was just a surgery to remove the testicle and then we were, you know, fine for about a year and a half, and then the cancer came back.
It had spread a little bit and at that point it had required chemotherapy back then that was late 2023.
And not to pry too much.
You're a really young man at that point, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was a shock, you know.
I'm very physically active.
I've always prioritized the gym.
I've always prioritized playing tennis, staying active, eating healthy, so it just goes to show this could happen to anyone.
It is the most common cancer among men, 15 to 44, regardless of how healthy you are, regardless of how physical you are, it can really creep up out of nowhere.
So talk to me a little bit about.
You know, kind of you faced big adversity both physically, mentally, you know, we talk about mental health, we talk about kind of how do we educate and share with us.
It's a big part of what you're doing and opening up and being very vulnerable and sharing to help educate.
Yeah, yeah, it was, it was absolutely a journey physically and mentally and the mental side, I don't think I anticipated as much as the physical side, you know, physical chemo takes a toll on.
Anybody really, you know, you lose 40 pounds in 3 weeks, you lose strength, you lose the ability to walk, sleep, whatever it is, and then mentally it's just that that toll that cancer itself takes, you know, just that lingering fear that you kind of live with for the rest of your life, anticipating whether it's going to come back or not, knock on wood.
So a big part of this fundraiser is not only to educate the public about the most common cancer among men 15 to 44, but also provide an outlet for outreach and support.
I want to be there for, I was going to say young men, but really any man going through testicular cancer.
I want to be able to provide any comfort that I can, and I hope this foundation and this fundraiser that I'm running will kind of give anyone that outlet.
So talk about that a little bit more specifically, and thank you so much because.
It's so easy in many cases to retreat and not engage, but you've kind of embraced that and coming forward with courage to help others and even if you can alleviate some of their pain and anxiety, sharing your experience is just a wonderful thing.
So thank you for that.
You know, George, you formalize you're doing a fundraiser.
Tell us about that specifically and frankly, how do people get involved if they choose to.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I've been, I've been on social media since 2021 and I figured I built myself as along with my podcast co-host, we built a really nice community around us.
So after chemo and after a couple of months of recovery and getting back physically, I thought it's about time I use my platform for good, you know, I am obviously a voice that a lot of people want to join in on and listen to, so let me use my platform for good and obviously going through what I went through, no better opportunity to do it through testicular cancer.
So I did a lot of due diligence for a lot of testicular cancer foundations and I came across the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation.
It is a foundation that originated in 2009.
It started from a lovely lady named Kim Jones who I had the opportunity to speak with after her son was diagnosed with late stage testicular cancer.
He ultimately passed away in 2016, so she's built this foundation beautifully.
If you were to visit their website, they have so many just fantastic programs from education to outreach to financial to give a shout out to the website.
Yeah, it is the testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation.
So it's just a fantastic outlet for really anything educating yourself, educating the public, so many programs.
So I had a lovely conversation with Kim, the founder and CEO, and Um, I kind of explained to her how I wanted to use my platform and she advised that a fundraiser would be the best bet.
So now I'm fundraising through Pledge, and that's live.
It's going to be live essentially forever until I kind of turn the fundraiser off, which I don't plan on doing.
I'm going to leave it there for as long of an evergreen, exactly, yeah, just anytime anyone feels inclined to donate, anytime anyone feels inclined to reach out to me and talk to me about anything, I'd love to be there.
Oh, great.
Well, Thank you and congratulations on all the giving back big event coming up.
You're getting married very, very short order.
So thank you for taking the time and to come out and share more with our community and God bless you and congratulations on the wedding.
Thank you very much.
I joining us again, Georgia.
Our pleasure.
