's Archive

When I originally jumped on the idea of being in a film about a bunch of young adult cancer survivors, kayaking down a river, I really didn’t have any idea what I was getting myself into.

I know that the world is such a big place, yet I don’t feel small any longer; and I know that there will never come a day when I can’t say that I’ve grown from my experiences. That I’ve made life long friends. And that I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to make a contribution to the forward movement of mankind, and appreciate all that is to come in the future.

I have confirmed a few vendors/locations to show the premier of the film in January!

I’m getting excited that we are a few months away from something bigger and then the Olympics are here! I can’t believe the opportunities that I’ve had this year to create community, compassion and commitment.

Thanks to everyone who’s been involved and look forward to seeing something in the mail (electronic or snail).

Having fun at Aldor Acres farms

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 2 months since I left for our adventure in the desert. 8 days ago I moved up to Ottawa, and last week I started my classes at Carleton University. A couple of days ago I volunteered to help out the Ottawa Terry Fox Run, and this coming wednesday I’m going to be speaking to a school full of young kids in Ottawa about my experience with cancer.

I’m trying to apply some of the lessons I learned out on the water to my life now, by jumping at opportunities when they arise, and trying to live without fear. I’m also trying to find some time to hook up with the Carleton white-water kayaking club. Tomorow Bonnie, Mikey, and I are going to try and brainstorm some ways of getting the movie screened in Ottawa and my hometown. We want to be able to reach a broad audience, outside of the community of cancer survivors and supporters. If anyone has any connections or ideas about where we can show this awesome doc., please give Mikey a call. The contact info should be on the site.

Hey everyone!

Just a quick update on how the film stuff is going… we have captured about half of the 50 hours of footage and things are looking great!! The beauty of the Owyhee is not lost at all thru the lens! Also, there are quite a few musicians who are interested in helping us out with songs for the film and we are in the process of getting all the legal stuff figured out. So things are going great and we are hoping to have a few short clips up on the website in the next weeks to start getting people excited!
Thanks for checking in,

Mike Lang

This site works best when viewed with any other browser…  I suggest getting Firefox, it is free and works better  …

(if you have a Mac disregard this post)

I’m in the back; Cheryl Roby in the front.

August 8, 2009 Richmond Review Article

Paddling adventure proves to be similar to cancer experience

by Matthew Hoekstra
Staff Reporter

Launching a kayak into the unsettling waters of Oregon’s Owyhee River isn’t on everyone’s life list. But for Jen Luce, the trip was more than an adventure, it was proof she could kick cancer in the butt.

The 32-year-old Richmond resident recently returned from a trip where she spent eight days paddling and camping with seven other young adult cancer survivors.

The adventure was captured on film and will become subject of a documentary showing the strength and will of cancer survivors. “It was really fantastic to see all these people who were quite afraid and challenged to do this—myself included—and to conquer that and to push through that,
and realize it’s very similar to their cancer experience,” said Luce.

Mike and Bonnie Lang of Calgary-based Survive and Thrive Adventures organized the adventure.

Three years ago, Luce was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer. She led an intense battle against the disease. Today her health is good and she’s passionate about advocating for young adults with cancer.

Other adventurers on the paddling journey were in varying stages of cancer—in treatment, recently finished treatment or a few years past treatment and facing possible recurrence. More than learning how to navigate channels or master an eddy, the trip provided Luce with hope.

“Having a good attitude can change your perspective,” she said. “If I have a good attitude, I’m going to see hope and have faith in the process and see things differently.”

The forthcoming documentary, expected to be out by January 2010 and screened in Richmond, will be rich with that message.

“When young adults are going through cancer we feel like we’re completely alone. We feel like there are no support because it’s so hard to find, where in fact there are people who are kicking butt after cancer.”

In the meantime, Luce continues to be an advocate. She’s inviting young adult cancer survivors to “Retreat Yourself,” a free event for survivors ages 18 to 35 where Luce will be a peer facilitator. More information is available atwww.youngadultcancer.ca.

Luce is also hoping to share her story and message of hope at a cancer forum in Ottawa in September and is looking for sponsorship. Contact jenluce@
hotmail.com.

For a link to the article, click here.

A week and a half has just flown by. It still doesn’t seem real what we have just accomplished. Completing 49 miles on the Owyhee River with an incredible group of cancer survivors, not your stereotypical white water adventurers. However this group, that I am proud to be part of, brought something bigger to the river. Paddling the lower Owyhee is an accomplishment in itself, but the purpose of this trip is what made it truly unique. The mold that I thought I was in has started to lose its shape and strength. I pushed myself beyond what I thought was possible only a month ago.
For me, the purpose of this trip is nothing short of changing the way we see cancer survivorship today.
Cancer was not the end of my life, but only the beginning of and illuminating of my true purpose here. That is to make cancer treatment, surviving then thriving not just a pipe dream, but real and tangible for patients and survivors to come. The documentary, the themes and their implementation are going to be tools to accomplish this, but it has to start with me. I need to step up even more into the roll of example and “guide” and advocate and … and … and …
There is a mountain of work ahead but I feel better prepared and seeing the passion, determination, and caliber of those I am working with gives me hope. Hope that change will happen, not somewhere way in the future but today. And tomorrow.
This change begins with us and we are the ones to carry it into reality.

It’s been nearly a week since we wrapped up our desert-adventure, and now a new challenge faces me and the rest of the Survive and Thrive crew. Far from fighting currents and dodging rocks, our challenge lies mostly in our minds; namely, taking the lessons we have learned and the state of mind we have acquired and putting them into action in our lives. On my 24-hour solo I made up a list of things I wanted to do when I got home, a mix of short term and long term goals, both community and self-oriented. My progress so far has been thus; I have sent off an email to the Terry Fox foundation offering my services in whatever capacity they need, started meditating when I can find a quiet time in my day to relax and refocus my mind, started swimming, and contacted the director of Young Adult Cancer Canada (look them up online!) with regards to trying to get my butt out to their survivor conference in the fall, mid-terms be damned. Now I sit back and await responses, and try and to pursue some of my other goals. More on that later.

-Peter Mazereeuw

I can’t believe that after eight days on the river, here I sit in front of my computer.

I have so much to take from this trip that I need some time to digest everything that happened, but I do believe that these lessons will only further my initiative in helping young adults survive cancer.

Being away from everything was frustrating, but incredibly refreshing. I already miss the sand between my toes and the early morning kayaking on the river. The sound of my paddle dipping into the glassy river, while watching the water drip off as if it were dew, still stays in my mind. In fact, I still feel as if I’m paddling!

The crew was fantastic. The guides, spiritually, physically and emotionally, were our rocks, as we were to each other. I don’t know what I would have done without the setup on some of those scary rapids. But I knew that because you were there, that we would be fine.

I felt your disappointment as many of us crashed on “Read ‘em and weep” and “Artillery”. The fact that many of us made it down the Class 4 was awe inspiring.

Watching those that were afraid of heights, jump from a 30 foot cliff into the pristine water below was rewarding. Seeing people push past their fears, as well as my own really made me feel much bigger than the tiny person I am on this earth.

To look up at night and see those stars, planets, satellites and planes above me didn’t make me feel small at all - in fact, I really felt as if I was a part of it all, that I wasn’t insignificant and that everything I did affected everything else. That the steps I made in the morning through the sand to find my bathroom, were steps that could change so much. Change the ecology around me. I felt sustainable roughing it. That this was almost where I was meant to be, always on the water, stepping outside my comfort zone.

I remember the first time I fell out of my kayak. I should have high-sided, which meant that I should have leaned into the rock when I smacked up against it, so that the force of me pushing up on it, would release the current beneath me and set me free. Well, the first time I couldn’t quite understand that, but I learned my lesson and did my best to hang on as long as I possibly could. Unfortunately, there were a few times that although I’d always had a fear of being under water without being able to hold my nose, that in the spur of the moment when I went under, that it really didn’t matter, and it was no longer a big deal to me.

Me feeling as if I’d almost drowned a few times as a child, I still carried this silly fear with me that somehow I would drown. Fortunately, having a PFD (personal flotation device), a helmet and gloves, helped reduce my fear. It also helped having people I trusted my life in around me most of the time.

I am sure that I will be adding more to this blog as time goes on and as I begin to only touch the surface upon what I’ve just embarked on. I will be helping to facilitate in a little over a month, at a young adult cancer retreat put on my Young Adult Cancer Canada (www.youngadultcancer.ca). I’m looking forward to applying the tools I’ve learned to speaking with new young adult cancer patients/survivors/supporters.

Thank you again for a trip of a lifetime. The support doesn’t end here. Can’t wait till we have some pictures up and some footage of the film. Everyone was fantastic. I miss you all!

Oh, and on the note of media, I watched something on 16×9 last night about a guy with Leukemia who kept on trucking even though doctors only gave him a few months to live. He said that no matter if he was around or not, his film always would be (http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/globalshows/16×9/video.html - episode 135, July 26, 2009).

Love always, Jen.

Look at me mom, no hands!

The crew, about to head out (minus frolicking Fred, film crew, photographer and guides)

Well, everyone has made it back safe and sound to their respective cities and after a good nights sleep Bonnie and I are sitting here thinking back on the trip and being blown away!! It is hard to believe that everything could have worked out as perfectly as it did. It was truly an epic trip!! Bonnie and I were continually impressed and delighted at the posative attitudes and openness of everyone on the trip… even after sleeping on the ground for 9 nights, getting many bumps and bruises from the river rocks and pushing through long days of tiring paddling we had some of the most honest, soul bearing and practical conversations about the big themes of a cancer journey (and life in general!). We also cliff jumped, ran a numerous class 3 and one class 4 rapids, rappelled off a cliff, hiked up to a beautiful viewpoint and a deserted rustlers cabin, swam around in the river, did the owyhee river rodeo and built strong friendships. It was a full, exciting and absolutely amazing expedition.

If you were a supporter of this epic adventure, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity. For all the survivors on the trip, I have never been on a trip with such an amazing, inspiring group of people. You have all impacted our lives in ways that Bonnie and I are just beginning to understand. We are so proud of what we as a group have accomplished and are so thankful that we can call all of you good friends.

The editing of the film will begin in three weeks and hopefully will be finished by the end of December 2009. The photos from the expedition will be available sometime around the end of August (but we will try to get some photos in the next few days to wet our appetite). Now comes the long process of developing and sharing our amazing experience with all of Canada. I can not wait to see where this all goes and I can not help but be struck with the feeling that this is the beginning of some thing very big… something that will have a profound impact on the “big story” that we all play a role in.

Thank you again to everyone who played a role in this great adventure. Here is one poem that I would like to leave with you that encapsulates what it is to not only Survive, but to Thrive!!

Risking Much

To laugh, is to risk playing the fool.
To weep, is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another, is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings, is to risk exposing our true selves.
To put your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk loss.
To love, is to risk not being loved in return.
To live, is to risk dying.
To hope, is to risk despair.
To try at all, is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken,
Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they simply cannot learn, change, feel, grow, love, live…
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves.

Only the person who risks is free.

Only two days until everyone arrives!!! I can’t believe that after 11 months on planning and dreaming it is almost time for our adventure to begin. It seems like no matter how much planning you do for a trip there are always a million and one last minute things to do. Bonnie and I have been working non-stop for the last week and a half trying to wrap everything up… and we are almost there!

Just so everyone can appreciate how miraculously this trip has come together I thought I would list all the places that people are coming from to be on this trip: In Canada: Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Surrey, Richmond, Vancouver, and in the USA: Anacortes, Bellingham, Redmond, Leavenworth, and Boise. That is 14 different cities for the 16 people coming on the expedition!!!

It has been amazing to watch things come together and I am so excited to finally get on the river with everyone. We are all committed to not only survive this life but to thrive in every experience that comes our way… and we are excited to bring you along on our adventure when the film is completed!

Huck it Huge everyone!