July 21, 1999
Frozen Moments

July 28, 1999
Burger! Burger!

August 11, 1999
I Want My VH1

Devin Pike is a freelance designer. No, wait, he's a DJ. No, sorry, he's a sports nut. He lives in Irving, TX with four cats and a hamster, who are plotting to kill him in his sleep this week.

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The first is Swedish hurdler Lyudmila Engquist. She was the gold medallist in the 100-meter hurdles at the '96 Atlanta Olympic games, as well as the victor at the '97 world championships. You would think that after everything she's accomplished in track and field competition, she wouldn't have much else to prove -- except to herself.

She finished third in the 100-meter hurdles back on August 28, which might be considered small change for her. Not this time.

Y'see, Lyudmilla Enquist found out back in March that she had breast cancer. She had a mastectomy on April 21, a procedure where doctors removed her right breast. In addition, she was scheduled for six sessions of chemotherapy, to remove the secondary damage to the surrounding tissue.

However, after her fourth session of chemotherapy, she decided that she still wanted to compete in the World Championships in Seville, Spain. Her husband and manager, Johan Enquist, details her struggle with the debilitating nature of chemo:

"She has to rest the day before chemotherapy, and again the day after. The following day she just does a little jogging and then after that she can train. However before she was doing 11 or 12 sessions a week and now she can only train six to eight times a week. Really, she is only doing 50 percent of her normal training."

After the championships, Lyudmilla returned to Sweden to continue her chemo treatments. Doctors refer to her return to competition, along with Lance Armstrong's Tour de France win in July, as "proof that there is life after cancer."

The second person who you need to meet is Jim Valvano. Jim coached college basketball from 1968 through 1989, finishing out his coaching career at North Carolina State University. In 1983, he led NC State to the NCAA tournament, winning the whole shebang. His record as a coach was 351-222.

Jimmy also did color commentary for ESPN's college basketball coverage. In 1992 he won an ACE (Award of Cable Television) for Best Sports Commentator / Analyst.

Five months later, ESPN broke the story that Jimmy V was diagnosed with bone cancer. He would return to the network in November of that year, providing color commentary for the pre-season National Invitational Tournament.

On March 4, 1993, Valvano was given the first Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the first ESPY Awards. In his acceptance speech, he announced the creation of the V Foundation for Cancer Research. He knew his time was short -- the treatments weren't having the success anyone would have liked. But, like so many times with his teams, he was not going to take this loss lying down.

"Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever."

Jim died seven weeks after giving that speech.

His foundation continues to raise money for cancer research, hosting several events like last month's Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic. The V Foundation has awarded over six million dollars in research and awareness grants. Donations are accepted online, where you can also get merchandise and other Jimmy V schtuff. The foundation works on Jimmy V's motto: "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

Why should you care? Why would I want to take up bandwidth talking about cancer? Simply, because you oughta know that it could happen to you. It happened to me.

In October 1994, I was diagnosed with throat cancer. The doctors had caught it early, and I went through invasive chemotherapy to keep it from spreading to my lymph nodes. They were successful, and I've been in remission since February 1995. Had it not been for a routine check-up, I wouldn't have known, and might have died from a tumor I didn't even know existed.

I don't preach that often, but I will say this... donate what you can for cancer research, and get yourself checked. There are so many little things you can do to stay cancer-free. Talk to your doctor and do them all.

I saw Jimmy's speech on the ESPY's a year before I knew about my cancer, but his words stayed with me. Hopefully, they will stay with you as well.