Kidney Cancer Never Comes at a Convenient Time

Snowy Mountains, Australia, Oct, 2015.  The C4KC team headed down under to underscore that Kidney Cancer is not just a national problem, it is an international problem affecting over 300,000 world citizens each year.  We met up with Graham Clayton, who was diagnosed with kidney cancer about 18 months ago.  Graham was busy in the first years of getting his business off the ground see world class indexing.  Fortunately for Graham, his tumor was small and he was able to get a partial nephrectomy (where just the tumor is removed and the remainder of the kidney is sewn back together.  Graham is not alone in Australia, in fact there are 2000 others diagnosed every year in Australia.  This is a higher age-adjusted rate than the world average and unfortunately, the rates are increasing in Australia (see below) just as they are increasing in the United States and other developed countries.

When Graham was treated for his kidney cancer, he spent about 1 week in the hospital.  This major threat to his health led him to do what many others do and he decided he would make some positive changes in his health.  He started eating better and found a personal trainer and started working out.  We were thrilled when Graham agreed to head into the Snowy Mountains to try something he’d never tried before, climb a mountain 4 kidney cancer.   Not only did he choose to climb a mountain, he chose to attempt the highest mountain on the Australian Continent.

Graham also is the resident expert on the Windsor RSL Speedway just outside of Sydney, Australia.  This speedway is there no longer, but Graham gathered photos, stories, newspaper clippings and interviewed many of the early racers and recently donated this all to the public library.  See his Facebook page.

Here are some photos and video from our climb.  The weather was a bit unfavorable and we got a rather late start, but we still enjoyed being out in nature and enjoyed being on the top of Australia.