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This article, was written
by Katherine Spiers, and appeared on StandUp2Cancer.org
Inspired by a unique corner of the country in Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, Jack Ganster created Survivor’s Outdoor Experience (SOE), an organization that gives people living with cancer a chance to find joy, and perhaps healing, in nature.
A naturally beautiful and diverse area, the setting of Ganster’s program includes a temperate rain forest on the western side that receives nearly twelve feet of rain every year, while the eastern, Seattle-facing side receives only about 25 inches.
Almost entirely rural, the peninsula features mountains, rivers and lakes surrounded by Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean. It’s also home to Olympic National Park, a million-acre wilderness home to flora and fauna not found anywhere else in the world. Ganster has a lifelong love of the outdoors, but found special comfort in kayaking, hiking, and just being in the natural world after his brain cancer diagnosis in 2003.
“I was shown pictures of a person who had a brain tumor,” he recalls. “And that person was me. Something was inside my head that didn’t belong there.” Ganster had a tumor the size of a golf ball, but doctors told him he was fortunate that it was fully circumscribed (independent of the brain tissue) and could be removed in its entirety. Today, he is happy to call himself a cancer survivor.
“People think ‘why me?’ but I thought, ‘why not me?’” says Ganster. “Now I have to figure out what to do with this experience.” And that is exactly how SOE began. Finding inspiration in Lance Armstrong’s philosophies, Ganster decided that “being a ‘victim’ was a state of body and being a ‘survivor’ was a state of mind.” The name “Survivor’s Outdoor Experience” refers not only to those whose cancer is gone, but to those living life to the fullest even with the disease.
One of SOE’s upcoming free presentations will focus on the importance of self-advocacy for newly diagnosed cancer patients. Ganster hopes to encourage patients to engage their doctors as their partners, and take a proactive approach to their treatment the same way he did – interviewing doctors and surgeons, and finding the best possible resources for their own individual diagnosis.
Dave Long, Ovenspoonful
In addition to educational workshops, SOE leads three-day outdoor and health programs, combining activities like canoeing and hiking with yoga and health-conscious cooking workshops. Other programs planned for the small start-up non-profit, like Hiking Companions, will match participants with hiking buddies to explore new trails. “My friend came up with the term ‘cancer warrior,’” says Ganster. “Until he passed, he was active, training for triathlons. That’s living life as a survivor.”
Peninsula resident Dan Maguire was an early member of SOE, and believed in the program enough that he volunteered to serve on the board of directors. A former CEO of the local YMCA, Maguire also founded the Olympic Wellness Coalition, a fitness initiative that involved the peninsula community in a “virtual trail” competition. “I’ve been hiking with Jack up in the mountains, and it’s amazing. Awesome and awe-inspiring,” says Maguire. “I don’t know the science of it, but that’s got to be good for you.”
Maguire is a cancer survivor himself, and his wife is currently living with the disease. While he doesn’t think there’s one therapeutic answer for everyone, he does believe that SOE’s group outings will benefit many. “I don’t even want to talk about my cancer, to tell you the truth. But I do think a lot of people need a lot of support,” says Maguire. “We’re here. We might as well take advantage of it. The Olympic Peninsula is a pretty unique place. It’s very isolated. What we do have here is the outdoors.”
Ganster began SOE with the hope that anyone could participate, aiming to include both families and individuals in his programs. He believes a focus on health and outdoor recreation is an important piece of the prevention and cure puzzle.
While searching for the perfect symbol to represent SOE, Ganster was approached by a local photography icon, Pat O’Hara. His suggestion was the Pacific Yew tree, which was once considered a “trash” tree of no value. Left behind in the forest after larger trees like the Douglas Fir were harvested, the Yew would inevitably be burned in slash fires.
“The image was not only elegant, it was symbolic,” says Ganster. Today, an unusual chemical called taxol, extracted from the bark of the Pacific Yew, has been found to be useful in the treatment of several cancers including breast, ovarian and certain lung cancers.
Resilient in nature, the Pacific Yew can live up to 500 years old. Ganster believes this is the perfect representation of the tenacity and strength that it takes to become a cancer survivor.
“I don’t think living every day as if it’s your last is a good idea,” says Ganster. “You do need to take stock, and appreciate life.”
And there really is no better place to do that than from atop a mountain you’ve just conquered.
