Never give up: Chris Root’s battle against cancer
Chris Root, a Glass Technician at Auto Glass Now, received a cancer diagnosis in July of 2022.
In July of 2022, Chris Root received news that threw his world into a tailspin – he had cancer.
“There's nothing scarier in your life than when someone tells you that you have cancer,” Chris recalls.
He didn’t know what the future looked like for him or his job. For the last 30 years, Chris has worked in the auto glass industry. It’s all he’s ever known, and he was unsure what impact cancer treatments would have on his employment.
As a Glass Technician, he worked for several different companies over the course of his career but landed at K&K Glass before it was acquired by Driven Brands in 2022. Driven’s U.S. glass business operates under the Auto Glass Now brand.
For Chris, the timing was perfect.
“With Driven Brands and how they handled everything for me, it was just great,” Chris says. “I know that I wouldn’t have made it through without them.”
He knew at some point he would need time off work to receive treatment and recover, but before treatment could begin, he found himself in need of leave for another reason: taking care of his wife.
Lisa, Chris’s wife of 32 years, fell and broke both of her shoulders in December of 2022. With her arms completely immobilized for six weeks, Lisa needed support for everyday tasks. Chris knew he needed to be there for his wife, so he reached out to the Human Resource department through DrivenLink to find out what his options were.
That connected him with Stacy Pawlowski.
As a Leave Administrator at Driven Brands, Stacy works with employees as they navigate the unique situations that life throws at them.
“We’re committed to supporting employees through the good times and the bad,” says Stacy. “When I spoke with Chris for the first time, he seemed really unsure of what the next few months would look like for both himself and his family.”
After talking with Stacy, however, Chris felt a lot more sure.
“She was so compassionate,” Chris remembers from their conversations. “She walked me through what to do and made me feel okay about it all.”
After taking time off through FMLA to care for his wife, Chris immediately went back on FMLA to go through treatment. This involved driving an hour and a half everyday for six weeks to receive radiation therapy at Moffitt Cancer Center. It was a tiring, stressful time for him and his family.
But one thing he never worried about was work.
“Treatment was a lot. I was worried even though I tried not to be,” Chris says. “But everyone at Driven Brands was great. They assured me that no matter what I had a place there. All I had to focus on was making it through.”
And now, he has made it through.
On April 11, 2023, Chris successfully completed radiation therapy. As he stood up to ring the bell at the Moffitt Cancer Center, he came face to face with a quote that brought tears to his eyes: “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
These words, a quote from Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh, hit home for Chris. His father, who lost his own battle to cancer in 2015, used to jokingly call him Christopher Robin.
“My dad was reaching out to me,” Chris says. “It was like he was telling me ‘never give up.’ And I didn’t. If there’s one thing from all of this I can take away, it’s that you don’t quit. No matter what.”