Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I was 12 years old when I was diagnosed started getting headaches migraines right
here behind my right eye and that was the first sign of a tumor and went to
eye doctor thinking we need eye glasses
we went to dr numark and said don't need glasses, something going on behind your
right eye
they brought in a brain surgeon to do a biopsy. After removed the tumor they test
it and it came back as aortic sarcoma
and uh...
we didn't know whether cancer was and what it did but knew it was a bad
situation so
they were'nt unable to treat me in west palm beach so i had to go a Miami
children's clinic in Miami at the time being
They just had to be really aggressive with the treatment 'cause the cancer
was so aggressive. 18 rounds chemo 30 rounds of radiation
That age I was getting into skating we had just got our
first skatepark built in west palm beach called Skateboard Safari
I was a year skating at the skatepark when i was diagnosed
with cancer, so,
it was a big blow for me because
I wasn't able to do skateboarding any more
do treatments to get rid of the cancer
i was in remission
at the time they said "if doesn't comeback is 7 years you're cured"
so that the seven-year point
i went back again and got all the test all the scans;
No cancer. Cancer-free.
Back to life. Back to school
Doing skate contests in florida
NSA amateur series. Doing all the cool stuff that kids do growing up:
working, skateboarding, surfing.
Being a cancer survivor & being able to skate with 1 eye and
everything back then & being able to compete with all the best guys
showed me that I had a good strength
It wasn't about being a pro skater I liked the sessions. I liked the
brotherhood of it all, you know the friendships. Something you keep forever
After cancer I started working at Wuvs cuttin' french fries
I was a french fry cook at Wuvs
I was already responsible
When you go through
something real major like that it puts a lot of things in perspective
I knew that if i got out there, did my own thing, worked and got my own
money then
I could do whatever i needed to do
twenty five years later
In 2003
started getting a runny nose. Went to see a regular doctors she said "looks
like you got a nasal infection"
so I did 10 days antibiotics didn't get any better
went back and said this wasnt really working' she said "looks like there's
some angry nose polyp in there and its growing so im sending you to DR
Raj. He was a nose head and neck specialist
He looked in my nose and said
"looks like your tumor came back"
I go ain't no way a tumor can come back twenty five days later so...
he did a biopsy to remove the tumor
and it came up the same kind of cancer i had when i was a kid
so the time
its the worst news you ever get as a human being
BOOM you're just
going back to fight for life again you know?
Went down to Miami
i had a doctor look at me he said uh...
yet we had never did your procedure butk
we're willing to
give it a try and uh...
I was devastated & my girlfriend Jill was down there with me and we're both
crying 'cause we don't know what to do and i had to go back home and think
about it
Where is the 4 best places to go in the united states?
the closest place to me was Morris Sloan in new york
I went up there to have an appointment with Dr. Sing
he goes "Mike
you'll be the 46 person to have the procedure. We're really good at
doing the procedure and uh...
it's gonna be uh...
craniofacial resection with a brain lift like a seventeen hour procedure
done & we'll remove cancer but we don't know if you're going to be able to
uh...
skate. so.
we're going to save life but we don't know what the quality-of-life will be
afterwards
at this time they were the only people really doing those procedures
I did the surgery and it was a great outcome they did great
job on me up there .My girlfriend Jill came after surgery & looked at me,
"Ahh it doesn't look that bad you look pretty good"
YES! I made it!
I made it through the surgery
After that I knew i knew i could get back to my strength
I was really lucky that
in this world that we live in that there's people that take the time to go
to school
help people like me and help save people's lives, so,
I'm very grateful
I try my best to do my best for others and uh...
and uh...
Just the doctors to be able to
save people's lives like that i can't
take stuff for granted I gotta...
do my part too.
i had to cash in my retirement to get through my illness
at the time i lost my job I had use up all my retirement fund to get through
my illness
So, financially devastated But Im alive so
I was able to have the
retirement fund to get to New York but a lot of people don't have that
People think they can be treated in own community and get devastating news
that they got to travel out of state
for me i was lucky, I was able to
get up to new york with insurance I had and pay my bills while i was
gone
After getting through
all the expenses and stuff everyone came together and we had a
benefit called Grind for Life. All the brotherhood of skateboarding came out
from florida
Mike Vallely came down skated for ys It was a moving day after that i
had seen there is a need for people
who are traveling long distances for cancer care and it didn't take a lot to
help them
Why don't we
do this all the time you know like why don't we have these kind of events
that help people?
That's kinda where the vision came from was that benefit.
all right
we're here at Clash at Clairemont 6
Little bad weather today, little rainy
People still coming together to help
Everybody wants to do good
but sometimes they don't know where to get involved at, so,
for action sports to have Grind for Life everybody can be a part of it
will help save people's lives has been a good thing so
to wake up every day know that you're doing good
and making a great impact as a human giving back as a person to
help people is a great feeling
dr Sing said you cant be in a better spot in life, with skateboarding you're
passionate and helping people with travel expenses
right now i have a great balance in my life with doing these events over the
country and educating communities on
cancer survival and recovery and
helping people it's been great journey
its good to know that you kicked cancers butt twice and show people too that
cancer doesn't always win
people prevail and get back to life doing good things