Gordon Everett desperately wants to be here for his daughter Piper’s sixth birthday. It could be the last one he celebrates with her.

Unless it turns out her fifth birthday was the last one. And that’s a day he’d just as soon forget.

On Feb. 18, 2009, Gordon learned he had Stage 4 lung cancer  — the most advanced level of the disease. Doctors told him he had between 10 and 12 months to live.

“I thought that I was ... out of luck,” Gordon said.

Gordon, 56, is tough. He overcame childhood polio to become a standout gymnast. He worked in hospitals for 32 years, rising to the level of department manager. He has refused pain pills while taking brutal chemotherapy regimens.

But stoicism came at a price. Years ago, he started smoking in response to stress in his life. He smoked for eight years, lying to his wife and children about the habit.

His guilt for those years is one reason he has taken chemotherapy, even though it leaves him weak and in pain. He knows the treatment won’t cure him. It offers only the possibility of a little more time with his family.

His wife, Tonya, has urged him to accept the easier alternative: less time for her and the children, but also less suffering for Gordon. But Gordon chose to extend his life, enduring the pain rather than let his family down again.

The worst part is thinking about the future and the special moments he won’t share with his family.

“I know I won’t get to see it all,” he said, his eyes staring into the distance through his thick-rimmed glasses. “I regret that beyond belief.”

Cancer has forced Gordon to rush what he had hoped would be years of happy fatherhood. At the same time, he’s using his relatively prominent role in local health care to offer a warning:

Tobacco kills in the most gruesome of ways.

Gordon has gone through three kinds of chemotherapy. The first didn’t work. The second brought brutal pain and lethargy, leaving him on the edge of despair. But an unusual program offered through South Coast Hospice and Bay Area Hospital renewed his confidence and gave him the spirit to keep fighting.

Now he cracks jokes again. His toothy smile has returned, though his family still notices how the chemo has affected him.

The family has made two extended summer trips, and Gordon is trying to spend as much time as he can with his four children: Alexis, 15; Karli, 9; Piper, 5; and Lucas, 2. He knows this last stage of his life won’t be easy. But then again, neither was the past.

“I’ve had an exceptional life,” he said.

As it draws to its end, he wants to be the father his children need, and he wants the community to hear his story.

VIDEOS: Gordon Everett