There’s no time like the present when it comes to straightening teeth. That’s something Harry learned when he decided to fix his smile again as an adult. He was about to start the process of straightening his teeth through SmileDirectClub when he was blindsided by a cancer diagnosis.

But Harry was determined to face his toughest battle head-on and get his dream smile while doing it. Getting a new smile was one change in his body he could control, and that made going through such a tough time a bit easier.

As a kid, Harry had widely spaced teeth – an issue that runs in his family, he says. Like many adults who need help straightening their teeth, Harry wore braces as a kid but didn’t follow through as he got older. “I went away to college and thought it was a smart idea to toss my retainer,” he says facetiously.

After about 6 years, Harry started to notice a change in his smile that he didn’t like. The gaps had returned. So he started changing how he smiled, and stopped showing his teeth. He finally decided to try SmileDirectClub to get his smile back. Then his life changed forever.

‘It empowered me’

It was a few days before Christmas when Harry got the news that he had testicular cancer. “It was really rough to find out at 30. I was really shocked,” says Harry.

One thing that kept his spirits afloat during his cancer treatment, he says, was using the SmileDirectClub products and aligners. “That was helping me gain confidence in one place. Not only was I getting rid of this disease in my body, I was also fixing my smile and going on this journey. I knew at the end of this journey I would be smiling harder than I ever had before.”

Harry has been cancer-free for over a year now. Looking back, he says his experience with cancer and his new smile both played a role in helping him focus on living his best life.

“My smile is remarkable. I’m super confident. I would say that it empowered me,” he says. “And I just, like, can’t stop smiling.”

A week before his birthday, Harry celebrated by posting the first photo of his new smile on Instagram. “That photo is the first photo I look back on and I’m just like, ‘You did it, kid. You went on this crazy journey through cancer. You decided you were going to fix your teeth,’” he says. “And I came through it smiling, and I haven’t stopped since.”