Hi, My name is Jon Olis. I currently am a survivor of Stage IIIC Colon Cancer and FAP. I was diagnosed with both in June of 2004 at the age of 36. Things were a little rough for me for a while. 4 major surgeries, 6 months of chemo, removal of my colon, re-routing of my small intestine to my stomach, etc.
In mid 2006 I started riding mountain bikes again. Before cancer I had done a little riding. This time it was different. I got involved in racing in 2007 and that’s when everything started to change for me. I found if I could climb a hill faster, ride the course quicker, beat the competition (or just beat my own records), then it must mean I’m healthy. And as long as I kept getting faster that was proof that the cancer was not coming back.
In fact, studies had shown that increased excercise after a cancer diagnosis reduced the chance of recurrence by as much as 25-50%. That was all I needed! Over the following years I trained harded and harder. I lost 45 lbs riding my bike and managed to get in pretty decent shape.
For this reason I am titling my blog “Riding Away From Cancer” since that’s really what I did. I truely believe riding saved my life. And I truely believe that my cancer diagnosis has turned me into something I could have never been without having gone through all that.
Oh, and the “its ALL about the bike” comment. Well, either you get that or you don’t. In Lance’s book “It’s not about the bike” he writes about his journey back from cancer and if you read the book its clearly all about the bike. So I’m telling you… “Its all about the bike!” for me.
Riding Away From Cancer (its ALL about the bike) 