This past Halloween, Dan Slater, dressed in a suit and wearing a necktie, made his way through the festive and crowded second-floor public lobby of the Bill Holmes Tower at CHOC Hospital as delighted patients and families collected treats from costumed employees and guests.
On May 11, 2023, Dan also attended the topping-off ceremony for CHOC’s new Southwest Tower, the nine-story outpatient building on the Orange campus that will open in mid-2025.
For Dan, sworn in as mayor of Orange in December 2022, two decades after he last served on the Orange City Council, the significance of the visits cut deeper than a local dignitary’s customary presence at key city events.
For the third-generation resident of Orange who lives in a 1923 California bungalow he restored, the visits were a homecoming of sorts.
When Dan was 19, he began a harrowing health odyssey after CHOC doctors diagnosed him with embryonal cell carcinoma, a rare form of testicular cancer.
The 64-year-old, during a recent interview in his City Hall office, got emotional when discussing that challenging time in his life.
“Here I was 19 years old, I never smoked, never drank, I lived a pristine life, and now I was facing a rare, dangerous cancer,” Dan recalls.
Life on pause
For two years, the disease brought most activities in Dan’s life to a halt. He had to drop out of college but managed to work part time at a grocery store following surgery and during chemotherapy treatment that often made him sick.
Dan recalls the relentlessly negative attitude of an older man with cancer he often saw during the cancer treatment he received at another hospital.
The future city leader would have none of that.
Recalls Dan: “‘OK,’ I told myself. ‘I’m going to get through this. I’m going to knuckle down. With God’s support and my faith, I’m going to get through this one way or another. And if I die, that wouldn’t be bad, either, because I know where I’m going.’”
Second health challenge
Dan attended Immanuel Lutheran School in Orange from kindergarten through the eighth grade and graduated from Orange Lutheran High School in 1977.
A year before his cancer diagnosis, while attending Cal Poly Pomona with plans to pursue a career as a veterinarian or a job in the forestry service, Dan was taking an English exam as a first-year student when he got a terrible pain in his side.
He had to lie down several times on the grass before he eventually made it to his car, where he rested more before managing to drive home to Orange. His father took him to the emergency room.
After taking X-rays, doctors diagnosed Dan with a spontaneous pneumothorax or a collapsed lung. Air had leaked into a space between his left lung and chest wall. Doctors inserted a tube between his ribs to remove the excess air, and Dan recovered in the hospital for a week without having to undergo surgery.
A year later, he was diagnosed with cancer.
“I grew up my entire life being afraid of shots and needles,” Dan says.
After two years of recovery during which his hair fell out and he struggled with nausea and mouth sores, Dan returned to college as a transfer student to Cal State Fullerton, where he graduated in 1985 with a degree in business administration. He then began a career at his father’s real estate business, where he remains today.
Always interested in public service, Dan served on the Orange City Council for two consecutive terms, from 1994 to 2002 and later elected mayor in 2022.
People to talk to
Dan is acutely aware of the struggles and challenges patients and families face.
“It has a special place in my heart,” he says. “I just couldn’t be prouder of our medical facilities in Orange – CHOC being one of the major ones.”
Back when he was diagnosed with cancer, Dan wished he had more emotional support beyond his parents.
“I had nobody to talk to, really,” he says. “I pretty much went through it alone.”
Today, CHOC offers a variety of support to current and former oncology patients.
CHOC’s Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Treatment Program at the Hyundai Cancer Institute is one of the only pediatric cancer programs in the country with a dedicated program for teens and young adults.
And the After Cancer Treatment Survivorship Program at the Hyundai Cancer Institute has a multidisciplinary team that provides comprehensive follow-up visits to evaluate patients’ overall health concerns.
“Oh my gosh,” says Dan. “Those programs would have helped me out a lot. They’re so important.”
Expect to see Dan at many more CHOC events. “Orange has been extremely good to me,” he says, “and I just want to give back as much as I can.”
