Over the last two years, two of my lifelong friends have fought life-and-death struggles against their cancers.    

One friend got pancreatic cancer.   At diagnosis, he had 6% chance of surviving for 5-years.  Hearing “you have pancreatic cancer” from your oncologist is just about the worst diagnosis you can get.  But my friend achieved a complete remission.   In part, because he is one of those rare people who possess an imperturbable good nature and a supreme willingness to do WHATEVER is necessary . . .  and in part because he carries of a rare mutation that makes him unusually responsive to immunotherapy.   At the time, his oncologists didn’t even suggest immunotherapy because it had not been clinically proven as effective against pancreatic cancer.  But a clinical trial testing patients with his rare mutation allowed him to enroll just in time.  And now he is alive and cancer free.   All because of a willingness to try the untested, a unique insight into his personal biology, and a lucky slot in an experimental study.

Another close friend was less lucky last year.  His renal cell cancer had a predicted 66% response rate to immunotherapy.   On the face of it, things should have gone fine.    He tried multiple rounds of immunotherapy.   He tried small molecule chemotherapy.    But things just got worse.   He was one of the unlucky ones.   Is the insight that might have saved him lying just a few years in the future?   Is there anything I can do now to try to pull such a vitally important insight from the future into the onrushing present to protect the ones I love?

I recently accepted the challenge to raise funds to support Fred Hutch’s Climb to Fight Cancer.   I am climbing to Everest base camp (17,600 feet) to raise vital funds for Fred Hutch’s lifesaving research. You can help by donating to my climb, which will accelerate the quest for cures.

Fred Hutch has made some of the world’s most important medical advances — from developing bone marrow transplantation as a cure for leukemia, to pioneering powerful therapies that harness the immune system to fight cancer, to leading national and international initiatives that enable earlier cancer diagnoses and more effective treatments. This leading-edge research depends on private contributions that fuel novel studies, which have the power to make a profound difference.

Please click the “Donate” button and give to the Climb to Fight Cancer. Any amount you can give makes a difference to people and families facing deadly diseases. Your gift is 100 percent tax deductible and will fund extraordinary research, lifesaving discoveries, and cures. Thank you for your support!