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Negotiating Life’s Rapids

By Beacon Staff

ESSEX – Against a backdrop of towering mountains, a group of kayakers coasted down the rapids of the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. Among them were Tailz, Clicks and Johnny, all enjoying a pristine environment. A pristine moment.

But it wasn’t always like this, because at one point all 11 kayakers who took part in last week’s First Descents program were stricken with cancer.

First Descents was created in 2001 to provide a free, weeklong outdoor experience for young cancer survivors. Since then, 70 of the camps across the country have been funded through private donations. This year, 27 First Descents programs across the West will help survivors between the ages of 18 and 39 enjoy the outdoors.

Participants like Neil Taylor of Vermont. Three years ago doctors found a cancerous tumor in the left side of his head that had to be removed immediately. But during the surgery he lost his eyesight and suddenly found himself without the ability to do the things he loved – hike, ski and teach.

“It was taken away from me,” he said.

That was until he found First Descents.

Taylor, whose camp nickname is Tailz, first participated in the program last year and has returned 10 times since. In return for allowing him to come back so many times, Taylor offers his services as a massage therapist, which he began after he lost his sight.

“First Descents has been my savior,” he said. “First Descents has given (the outdoors) back to me.”

Which is how Taylor was fearlessly kayaking down the Middle Fork, with an instructor nearby giving him commands.

“Everything is visual in life,” Taylor said. “Crossing the street, driving a car, looking at beautiful women: it’s all visual. But kayaking is so sensual. You feel the rapids pull you this way, or that way.”

Mike Buckley of Nebraska, whose nickname Clicks comes from being a photographer, was first diagnosed with cancer in college. After six weeks of radiation it appeared he had beat it, but the cancer returned in 2005. Attending First Descents three years ago, Buckley said the program gave him an outlet to deal with the mental and physical issues related to cancer.

“I like First Descents because it shows that you’re not broken because of cancer. It’s empowering,” he said.

Ken and Holly Adnan of Colorado have spent part of the last eight summers volunteering their services as a doctor and nurse. For Ken, it’s also a personal experience. A deep scar in his right leg is a relic from when he was diagnosed with sarcoma tissue cancer a decade ago. After six months of treatment the cancer was in recession, but the physical and mental scars remained and when looking for ways to help those with similar experiences, Ken found First Descents.

“The program is just so powerful,” he said, sitting on a raft carrying medical supplies and following the kayakers. “Every week we’ve done this we’ve seen this amazing transformation of cancer survivors from when they first come to something very different when they leave.”

Barreling down rapids with a constant smile, Karson Beaty has seen more than most. Now 35, she was first diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer in 2007 and again in 2009. She was walking around a furniture store two years ago in her hometown of Knoxville, Tenn., when her cell phone rang.

“Your scans came back and your breasts look fine, but there was something on your liver,” the doctor told Beaty.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but we’re concerned,” the doctor said, as Beaty collapsed on a nearby couch, before rushing home to tell her husband, where they both broke down.

“It was probably the worst day in my life,” she said. “Even though the technology has come a long way and it’s not a death sentence anymore, it felt that way.”

Since then Beaty has gone through chemotherapy and still receives monthly shots to treat the cancer. At the time of her second diagnosis, doctors said she might only have two or three years to live. But last week, along the Middle Fork, she was living.

Beaty said the program has been a life-changing experience and become the ultimate therapy.

“Even now my husband and I live month to month. We can’t make a lot of plans because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “I try to live every day in a way that I can find joy.”

And as cancer survivors paddled toward the shore last week, it was clear they had found it.