Our Founder...Brendan D. Swan

I spent 5 years in the Navy as a Search & Rescue Swimmer and was a former competitive runner. That was my life prior to a Cancer diagnosis. Now, I'm just an ordinary guy from Chicago with an intense passion to bringing the fight against cancer to the forefront. The fact that 1 out of every 3 persons will be effected by this disease is staggering. I was diagnosed with stage III testicular cancer when I was 22. I endured some of the most toxic chemotherapy for 4 straight months; BEP (Bleomycin, Etopiside and Cisplatin) to be exact. However, the cancer had spread into both lungs and the chemo had little to no effect on the nodules. Subsequent to chemo, I underwent 8 lung surgeries which included the removal of a portion of my left lung and ultimately the removal of my entire right lung. It was then I decided to meet this new challenge head on and not only overcome my disability, but conquer it in such a way that I could never look back and say Cancer disabled me. Rehabilitation has been a long and grueling sruggle. I have had to condition what remained of my left lung in such a way that is foreign to runner's with 2 lungs in addition to the common physical strains felt by all conditioned athletes. My personal mission is to bring attention to the disease and more importantly prove that anything is possible if you have the audacity to overcome.