Kamloops cancer survivor giving back through charity ride

Brochu says he was a sun worshipper when he was first diagnosed with skin cancer in 2009 at the age of 28.

“I had a small mole on my back,” Brochu said. “They took it off, and it came back, and they did what is called a biopsy of it. So, they check it out to see if it’s cancerous or not and it came back as cancerous. Of course at that time I was a little bit scared, but I thought it’s skin cancer, it’s just your skin, they can cut it off, no big deal.”

After surgery Brochu was deemed cancer free, but in 2015 the cancer came back much worse than before, spreading from his back to his right lung.

“Luckily for me my oncologist found out a clinical trial, a clinical study out of Edmonton, the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton for immunotherapy.”

14 months of treament proved successful. Today, Brochu has a clean bill of health.

“My health now is 100 per cent,” he said. “I’m cancer free thanks to this treatment, this immunotherapy, which is groundbreaking, it’s brand new using the body’s immune system to fight cancer. With metastatic melanoma traditional treatments like radiation, and chemotherapy do not work for it. That’s what we’re trying to change, to change that.

“It’s working for me. I’m living proof that it works, cancer research does work.”

The Ride to Conquer Cancer has raised has raised more than $77 million for the BC Cancer Foundation.

This will be Brochu’s second ride.

“We set a goal this year of $25,000 for our whole team to raise, which is a pretty big goal, but we thought set the goal high and go high, why not? Right?”

By Thursday (Aug 24) afternoon the Melanoma Warrior had raised more than $20,000, with two days left to donate.

by Jill Sperling

Kamloops cancer survivor giving back through charity ride

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