[00:00:08] Speaker A: My name is Nancy Farrow, also known as Mama Lou, and I'm the founder of Epic Experience.
Epic experience mission is to empower adult cancer survivors and thrivers to live beyond cancer.
I hope that as you in the campfires of hope, living beyond cancer, you find hope, healing and empowerment. Through stories and education, we aim to guide those impacted by cancer and more importantly, offer love and support to anyone out there who needs it.
This is beyond cancer.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Hello, everyone. This is Gail, aka Sunshine. Welcome to an episode of keeping it real on the Campfires of Hope podcast, where we'll dig into the mental and emotional highs and lows of cancer survivorship. Today we have Brad Glassel joining us around the campfire. Brad's been with us before, but this time we're going to take a little different tact and talk about an exciting part of his cancer journey that you'll find out about later.
So, Brad, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and include one fun fact, please.
[00:01:48] Speaker C: Okay, so I was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Spent some time in California, a few other parts, but moved back to this area.
As far as my career goes, it started with I have a degree in arts and ended as being an insurance agent. So pretty varied areas in there. I won't take too long to go through all of them. I guess one fun fact is I've done 26 triathlons.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: That is amazing. I remember that. I remember being blown away when you told me that last time. That is amazing.
[00:02:24] Speaker C: I repeated, no, that's awesome.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: It's fabulous. That is an incredible fun fact.
[00:02:30] Speaker C: Those days are over.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: So you've moved on to other marathon like endeavors, which we will talk about coming up.
[00:02:40] Speaker D: There you go.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: So give us a brief recap of your cancer story. When were you diagnosed? What was your diagnosis and what treatment have you done?
[00:02:49] Speaker C: Okay, so I was diagnosed with stage three prostate cancer in 2016. And all of the treatment happened within that year. And as a matter of fact, a fun fact, I guess I'd say another one is I was diagnosed on St. Patrick's Day.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Oh, God.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: So that's my cancer bursary. I had to get to have a party every year.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: So, stage three prostate cancer. And I was treated with a drug called Lupron, which does a lot of similar things, kind of to chemotherapy, but I don't think it's as dramatic as most. And then external beam radiation and then another type of irradiation called brachy therapy. And so that all took place in 2016. And everything has been Ned since then.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Congratulations.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: That is amazing. It is great you wrapped that all up in 2016. After that, did you go looking for support of any kind? And if so, where did you find support?
[00:03:55] Speaker C: So I'd say I wrapped up the treatment part of it, but I didn't wrap up the mental part exactly. So that all took place and did take place pretty much towards the end of 2016. And I had ran across an article for the company I work for about somebody donating their proceeds from a golf tournament to epic. And I saw that and I'm like, oh, my God, I got to look at that because I think, like a lot of people, I felt really alone at that time. I thought I was the only one. And so I applied and fortunately got accepted right away. There was an opening and went in January of 2017, so soon after.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Oh, good.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: And, yeah, it was a real eye opener. Like I say, I felt real alone and going to camp and seeing others and what they're going through, and it really helped me a lot to say, okay, great, I can open up to things.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Were the people at your camp prostate cancer survivors, or was it just being with other cancer survivors is where you found the support, no matter what kind of cancer?
[00:05:05] Speaker C: Yeah, actually, it's kind of funny because I think it was great. They were all kinds of cancer. I don't know if anybody had the same. I have to think about that is the same diagnosis, but I thought that was great because that's kind of how life is. Everybody comes from a little bit different area, everybody has a little different challenges. And that was an eye opening thing to me, as in how different things can be, what their treatments like.
And it was very dramatically in ages and all that, too.
I like that idea.
Afterwards, I had been involved in some prostate groups, too, but to me, it doesn't matter what type of diagnosis. We all go through these difficult things.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you can have those deep conversations about very serious topics with anyone. Right. I mean, it doesn't matter what kind of cancer or what age or anything like that. So what did you learn about your cancer journey from those support groups? Epic. And the other ones that you've got?
[00:06:12] Speaker C: Yeah, so I think you had kind of mentioned it. One of the other things I got involved with is doing what's called story slams. And so what that is, is that there's like a national organization through NPR called Moth radio. Some people may have heard of that, but also it's done on a local level. So I had joined a group, and basically what it is is you get up on stage and you tell a story, they're allowed between usually in five and ten minutes. It's got to be about yourself and it's got to be the truth. And so basically, I looked at it at that point of saying, what can I do? That's different. And it was a real challenge because as most people, getting up in front of people is difficult, whether it's a speech or something like this. And this is also kind of a combination of entertainment and such.
Some stories can be funny and some can be heartbreaking and everything.
And so that was, again, very similar to talking to people about cancer, people talking about these different challenges or something fun and just the challenge of getting up in front of people. I mean, the first time I was sweating bullets and stuttering and all this, and you work at it and you get better and better.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Did your story slams eventually in some way? Not all of them, but some of them come back to cancer and what you had gone through and the challenges involved in that?
[00:07:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I did at one point do a story kind of about cancer and things like that. And actually, in a way, what I tried to do is kind of the funny parts about cancer, which, of course, is an interesting thing. It is, yes. But I think everybody, I shouldn't say everybody, but a lot of times you have something where you just got to laugh at it.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:08:07] Speaker C: It's so goofy in that regard. But one of the things that really happened is I went a couple of times, and it was really an eye opening thing to me. It was very personal. It was very rewarding and such. And I wrote a letter to the organize the group.
He doesn't make any money or anything like that. It's just like kind of a volunteer type thing. And I said how valuable it was to me and how helpful it was to me. He wrote back and he said, you know something? Tomorrow I was going to send something out, canceling it. It's been so much work, I wasn't going to do it. And he said, I realized how important it is to people. And he continued on.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:08:50] Speaker C: Yeah. So it really was kind of one of those things where you look at it and open it up to somebody and maybe it changes them or whatever.
So it was kind of a fun thing, and we become friends in such since.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: That's really neat. Well, the other thing I know you've done recently is you wrote a book.
[00:09:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Tell us a little bit about that. How that, I don't know if it is or it came out of these story slams and that whole experience. But tell us about that whole journey.
[00:09:21] Speaker C: Yeah, it did come out of it, because what happened is I was doing those stories and then this thing called the pandemic hit.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: I don't know.
Yes, I think I did. I think I vaguely remember that one.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: Yeah, right. So you couldn't go and be in groups and such and couldn't do that for quite a while. Now. When I used to do the stories, what I would do is I just write out some notes and you can't take anything up on stage. So when it was done, I would usually just throw them away. And then the pandemic hit and I thought, I have all these different stories, maybe I should write these notes out because sometimes you tell them again or something like that. I started writing them out and then I kind of started writing them a little more in a narrative type thing. I actually spent a few days up in a cabin doing this by myself.
When I got back, I sent them off to a friend who's an author, and he called me up and he said, yeah, these really stink.
[00:10:18] Speaker E: Stink.
[00:10:21] Speaker C: Yes.
He doesn't hold anything back. One of my friends I looked at and I said, well, yeah, I guess. And he started talking about it and all this. And so I started working at it and then I looked at it and I said, yeah, maybe I can write something better. So I didn't approach this as a book. I never did.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: So what else did you learn from the process of writing the book, rewriting the book, the whole process of it.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: I think, as I know we were going to do this podcast, I thought about it and I thought about it a little cancer, the cancer journey after cancer, all of this, the book and what's related. And I think what it comes down to is taking challenges a little bit at a time.
And it's really daunting to start with. After I went through treatment, it was really daunting. Like, how do you move on? How do you get, what do you do? And for some people, it's a change in work and life and all this. And when you look at it as it's really far away, but when you look at it as in, okay, there are small steps along the way. If you can get this one step done, the next step done, then it starts to build on it and everything like that. And again, I didn't start this as writing a book. I don't think I would have done that. I don't think I would have ever.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Said, oh, I'm going to write too big. Yeah.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: But when the little things started adding up, then it became to a point of, hey, yeah, I think I can do that. And then I took every part of that again and broke it down and did it step by step. And again, it was a three year process. And that's kind of how a lot of time challenges are. You don't tackle exactly a day.
So that's what I feel is kind of what I learned is look at it and say, okay, I'm just going to get this part and I'm going to get that moving.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: Yeah. It's setting those little goals. And like you said, it is a perfect picture of survivorship because it looks so huge when you. Okay, I just finished treatment now what? But if you can break it down, like you said, it makes it doable.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Because I think my experience with cancer treatment is that you're kind of on a schedule and everything everybody's told me, okay, go here this day, go this day, do this, all this. And then all of a sudden, one day they go, oh, you're all done, right? And then you go, well, wait a minute, now what do I do? I've never been there, but I always felt it was kind of like getting out of the military. If you got out of the military, every day the bugle goes off or whatever, now you got to do it all on your own.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Exactly.
Well, is there anything else you would want to share with someone listening, having to do with challenges overcoming them, cancer, anything that I haven't asked you about?
[00:13:19] Speaker C: I guess I would say that, first of all, a challenge could be small, too.
It can be big and it can be small. And I think it's scary. Yeah, answer is scary, and challenges can be scary. And so, again, if you look at it and say, oh, yeah, this whole thing is a lot, but if you look at it and say, well, could I just try the one part of it? And then if that goes good, then I'll move to the next part of it and everything like that and take it a little bit at a time because I think what happens a lot with everybody, I'd be there is you say, oh, I can't get to that. I can't do that. But if you try it a little and you may say, okay, I don't like that, let's try something else. I guess I'm just saying, try it.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: I like that. Giving yourself options, too, because I like the term analysis paralysis. To me, it's like if I look at the whole thing, I freeze because I can't figure out where to start. And then sometimes you're too scared to even start. But like you said, if you try this and this doesn't work, that's okay. You can try it from a different angle. I really like that.
[00:14:27] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, think of that with anybody with athletics or anything. And when I say that that could be small.
You may have a hard time walking a half a mile. Well, walk a half a mile one day and then you add a 10th of a mile and 10th a mile the next.
You know, the way athletes do it at a bigger scale.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Well, thank you, Brad. Thank you for sharing your journey of going through cancer, facing challenges, taking them one step at a time. And congratulations on writing the book. Even though that wasn't what you planned to do in the first place, you did it, and that is a huge accomplishment. That's awesome.
[00:15:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Thank you. I feel that way. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: That's great. Well, everyone, thank you for keeping it real with us. Until the next time we gather around the campfire, keep living beyond cancer.
[00:15:21] Speaker E: Thank you for listening to this episode of Campfires of Hope. Living beyond cancer. For more information about epic experience and our programs or to donate, please visit our
[email protected] music for this podcast is provided by Moonshiner Collective. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us so we can share our story with more people. Also, be sure to subscribe wherever you get podcasts so you'll know when new episodes are released. We hope you come back and join us for our next episode.
[00:15:49] Speaker D: Other times, dance through the night with some ghost of America police still on our side the family man bright and woke we will rise once again close.
