I received my ovarian cancer diagnosis in September of 2021. Notice I said MY ovarian cancer diagnosis. You see, after the initial news that I had a mass that was “highly suspicious of ovarian cancer,” having those “I never thought I would be having these conversations with my family” conversations, and the subsequent surgery that confirmed the cancer diagnosis, my …
by Kathy aka Cheese Curd It was March of 2016. I don’t remember the day, but I remember driving home from work and getting a call from a nurse navigator. She said my breast biopsy showed cancer – Stage 1 and Grade 1. I would most likely need surgery and radiation and I’d be fine. I pulled into the driveway …
Cancer. We all remember the how and where we heard about diagnosis. For me, it was December 16, 2019 via MyChart at a basketball game. As I like to say, I was ready for 2020 to be done before it started, it just took the rest of the world a bit longer to catch up. I started 16 rounds of chemo, followed by more …
Greetings! I am a Nurse Navigator for the Blood Disorders and Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic at University of Colorado, Anschutz Campus. I have worked at this hospital for 12 years. I’d like to share the life- and career-changing experience I had from being a volunteer for Epic Experience. My passion for working in oncology started when I was a travel …
Blog by Camper Danny Lanka, a.k.a. “Babe”. Attended camp in 2015. The day I knew for sure I had cancer was the absolute worst day of my life. The day before, I saw end of my time on Earth as someplace WAY over the horizon, 20 or maybe 30 years away. Then, in the blink of an eye, my end …
While going through emails, I found one that contained an incredible correspondence between two campers who attended our very first summer program in 2013. Hollywood and 4G had an instant connection, even though there was a 30-year age difference between them and they had two different cancers: one had neuroendocrine cancer and the other bladder cancer. Both of these epic …
Many think cancer disappears when treatment is over and there is no evidence of disease, but for so many, the side effects last forever. Thank you to one courageous Epic Experience camper for sharing what cancer has taken away from them. This is why Epic Experience was founded: to provide a supportive community of people who understand what it’s like …
Greetings, Epic Experience community! I’m Chris Chinn, a.k.a. “Burpee.” As Epic Experience’s newest staff member, I wanted to introduce myself and tell you a bit more about the journey that led me to this point. Most of you knew my father Louis “Stud” Chinn. If you didn’t, you missed out on a whole bunch of Dad jokes that left you …
By Cathy Pipcho This past July ‘21 I was given the opportunity to attend Epic Experience, a week-long adventure camp held in the Colorado Rockies, to “experience life beyond cancer”. I had applied in ‘19 and was accepted after submitting an application, medical records and clearance from my doctor. After Epic’s own medical review I was notified I’d be at …
Many of us have had life changing moments; some good, some bad. I had mine on March 5, 2014. That was the day that I was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and given 2 years to live. It came out of the blue. It was an incidental finding and I had absolutely no risk factors or symptoms leading up …
