Sean-Swarner-I-Share-Hope

Sean Swarner

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“Our body can live for roughly 30 days without food. The human condition can sustain itself for about three days without water, but no human being alive can live for more than 30 seconds without hope because without hope, what do we have left? Everybody has down days. Everybody has sad days. Everybody has frustration. Everybody has days where they want to give up including myself. Start in your mind I’m successful and start by closing your eyes every night and picturing what you want and what you truly want to work for. I’m Sean Swarner and I’m the only person in the world to accomplish what I have and I Share Hope.”— Sean Swarner

Sean Swarner is a two-time cancer survivor who, both times, was given just weeks to live. He not only survived but thrived. He became the first cancer patient to summit Mt. Everest and he didn’t stop there in his desire to motivate and inspire. He went on to climb the highest peak on each continent, then completed the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon and, in January, made a successful trek to the South Pole. He is also the founder of nonprofit cancerclimber.org; is the author of Keep Climbing; and has been dubbed one of the most inspirational persons of all time. This year, he celebrates 25 years cancer free.

THERE’S ONE PERSON IN THE WORLD WHO’S DONE WHAT I’VE DONE, CANCER OR NO CANCER, ONE LUNG OR TWO…. THINK ABOUT THAT… ONE OUT OF OVER 7,000,000,000. ONLY PERSON EVER… THERE ARE COUNTLESS PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES OUT THERE, COUNTLESS SPEAKERS…. BUT I COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT ALONE….



 

25: Sean Swarner – Cancer, Everest, Ironman, South Pole, #hope – #isharehope

“Our body can live for roughly 30 days without food. The human condition can sustain itself for about three days without water, but no human being alive can live for more than 30 seconds without hope because without hope, what do we have left? Everybody has down days. Everybody has sad days. Everybody has frustration. Everybody has days where they want to give up including myself. Start in your mind I’m successful and start by closing your eyes every night and picturing what you want and what you truly want to work for. I’m Sean Swarner and I’m the only person in the world to accomplish what I have and I Share Hope.”— Sean Swarner

Intro:

Welcome to I Share Hope! The podcast where world leaders share their real stories of hope and how you can use actionable hope to start changing your life today and now here’s your host, Chris Williams.

Chris Williams:   

Sean Swarner, super excited to have you with us today. So, you’re a two-time cancer survivor, both times you were just given weeks to live. You became the first cancer patient to summit Everest, that’s incredible, and you’ve gone on to climb the highest peaks on each continent. I’ve read so much about those expeditions and I’m extremely, extremely impressed. And then, you’ve also completed the Ironman in Hawaii and this past January, you decided to take a trip across the Antarctic to the South Poleand you made it and you’re here with us today.

You’ve also founded the nonprofit CancerClimber.org. I’ve been all over that website the past few hours. Super amazing stuff. I can’t thank you enough for being here and congratulations on celebrating 25 years cancer-free.

Sean Swarner: 

Hey, that’s just an added bonus to everything else, right?

Chris Williams: 

Man, tell us more about you. What’s going on? What are you into these days?

Sean Swarner: 

Well let’s see. I just did a Skype call, um, wow 3:00, so literally 5 or 6 minutes ago, I just got off the computer. I was doing a Skype call. Like you said, I just got back from the South Pole and getting in touch with classrooms now anywhere from first grade to 12th grade and doing Skype calls with them and it’s kind of fun. This one was with a first grade class and the questions that are distinguished between a first grade class and 12th grade class, you know, a 12th grade class would ask me a question like “How has your life changed since you’ve had cancer?” and a first grade question would be “What’s your favorite color?”. A third grade class would be “How many flags are at the South Pole?” So, it’s all over the place, but doing these questions, I can see how people mature from first grade all the way through 12th grade It’s actually really cool.

Chris Williams:

So of course, I want to know how many flags are at the South Pole?

Sean Swarner:   

Twelve.

Chris Williams:

Twelve?

Sean Swarner: 

Twelve yes.

Chris Williams:

Twelve countries? Is that what it is?

Sean Swarner:

Exactly because I think about 50 years ago, they developed a treaty where no one actually owns Antarctica. So, it’s a treaty where 12 countries all work together to protect Antarctica. When I was down there at the South Pole research station, as we talked about a little bit earlier, it’s odd because that treaty is up, I believe, I’m going to say in less than 10 years, 5 to 10 years. It’s odd because these “research stations” are popping up everywhere and no one’s really believing that they are research stations. They are bringing in drilling equipment.

Chris Williams:

Oh my goodness. What’s under there? Is it oil deposits or minerals? What’s in there?

Sean Swarner: 

They think, a lot of people think that there are a bunch of oil deposits there, but what most people don’t understand about the difference between the North Pole and the South Pole, because I’m hopefully doing the North Pole next year, the North Pole is just a solid chunk of ice. There’s no land mass down there. It’s not a continent. The South Pole, there is Antarctica which is a land mass and you have a 2-mile thick sheet of ice that’s moving over the continent. That’s what they’re drilling through.They are doing a lot of research down at the South Pole. It’s just geniuses’ work down there. I wish I understand half the things that came out of their mouth.

Chris Williams:

That’s so cool. I’m impressed. Man, you’ve been able to experience so many things, so tell me about hope. We got these five questions we ask every person we interview and you have a unique perspective. You’ve been to a lot of places, literally all over the globe, seen a lot of people, a lot of people group and had a lot of experiences that give you a unique view.

Question 1: What is your definition or best favorite quote about hope?

Sean Swarner:

Well, that’s really easy because, you know, I’m also a motivational speaker touring around the world giving inspirational talks to companies, Keynote stuff, but also organizations, hospitals, charities, everything. In my presentations I have a quote that goes like this: The human body can live for roughly 30 days without food. The human condition can sustain itself for about three days without water, but no human being alive can live for more than 30 seconds without hope because without hope, what do we have left?

Chris Williams:   

Wow. That’s really powerful and well-said and connects. You’re so right. There’s no way you can make it – I mean really, life without hope isn’t a life and hope is so connected and so stuck in our hearts and the people who lose it gets dark pretty fast.

Sean Swarner: 

It does and as soon as people lose hope, going through any traumatic experience, any traumatic illness, any part of their day, as soon as you lose hope, there really is nothing left. There’s nothing left to hold on to.

Chris Williams:

You’re right. Great.

Question 2: Who has shared the most hope with you? Who has been out there and really influenced your life in a hopeful direction?

Sean Swarner: 

I would say it’s probably a combination of a lot of people. So, it’s not just one person who’s given me the most hope. (A) My family, my mom, my dad and my brother and my cousins and my grandma, grandpa, my whole family pulled me through cancer because when you get cancer, it’s not an individual disease unfortunately. Everyone around you is involved – family, friends, everyone. But also, they instilled that seed of hope in me, but when I’m traveling around now, what I do is I visit local hospitals and share my survivorship story with the patients and they give me hope.

I have this notion of a circle of hope or a circle of inspiration where you cut it in half. The top part of the circle represents me climbing, me doing my crazy/stupid things depending on who you ask, the crazy things and I’m getting my hope, my inspiration from people who are battling for their lives, mostly the cancer patients. But like I said before, anybody who is going through anything traumatic. When I go visit those hospitals, I stand next to the hospital bed and I see someone who’s in that condition and I share my survivorship story with the patients. I’m trying to give them some hope in return. So, it completes the circle of hope or circle of inspiration where I’m getting inspiration and hope from them and hopefully they’re getting some back from me as well.

Chris Williams:

That makes a lot of sense. It’s a great analogy. It really is. We are really inspired by the feats that you are producing and just accomplishing constantly, but I’m glad that the people that are still in the middle of a battle for their lives on some traumatic level are just so empowering to you. I think that’s really cool because I’m sure they feel like they can’t do anything right now, but they’re giving so much hope to the people. Cool story.

Sean Swarner:

Yes and thanks. The thing is, everybody says, you know, they look at what I’ve done and there’s no relatability factor, what I call it. There’s no relatability factor for climbing Everest and being given two weeks to live and climbing Everest with one lung for that matter. I tell people my first step was to go from the hospital bed to the bathroom so I wouldn’t soil the sheets. I know what it’s like to actually have to put in that hard work and people need to realize that you don’t go from a hospital bed literally to the top of the mountain overnight. It takes long, dedicated days and hard work to make it happen.

Chris Williams: 

Wow. Makes sense.

Question 3: Tell me a time and kind of paint the picture, what’s going on in your life when you’ve had to really use hope to get you through something personally? Just stories.

Sean Swarner:  

Wow. Instantly I would think – I kind of talked about this in my book. I wrote a book a number of years ago. I’m working on a new one. I talked about how when I was getting my treatment that I would always get treated on the same level. I think it was the 9th floor or 7th floor let’s say. Treatment after treatment after treatment, the nurses became family. We got to know each other and for whatever reason one day I was going in for treatment and that entire ward, that entire floor was full, so they had to stick me at a different floor. This was in the middle of winter time, so it was snowing outside, kind of sleeting snow in Ohio. I was just down. I was depressed. I didn’t think it was going to turn out right and my mom and dad kept pushing for someone to not leave that floor, but when that person left or when someone left, they kept pushing to get me moved to that normal 7th floor.

That finally happened. I went down there and I was looking out the window into the square in the hospital. I looked out there, it was four walls around there. I remember it was snowing and raining and sleeting and the sun was out a little bit. There was a rainbow coming into that little courtyard and I remember looking at my mom and just kind of mentioning and mumbling everything’s going to be all right, isn’t it? So, I’m a big believer in science and for me that was a huge one.

Chris Williams:

Special moment. My goodness. So, how old were you when you first got cancer?

Sean Swarner: 

First cancer was 13. I was an 8th grader.

Chris Williams: 

Wow. Do you mind telling what type of cancer?

Sean Swarner:

The first one was Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, stage IV and the second was Askin’s Sarcoma stage IV and actually they were both advanced stage IV and the second time I was given only 14 days to live. I was actually read my last rites too.

Chris Williams: 

How old were you on the second round?

Sean Swarner:

Sixteen.

Chris Williams:

Incredible.

Sean Swarner:  

Yes. Pretty much my whole adolescent years were stolen from me, were taken from me, but when my friend were out there worrying about the coolest hairstyles, nicest shoes, clicks and all that stuff that at the time that most people thought was important, you know when you’re in high school It’s a popularity contest where people try to keep up with the Jones’ or trying to do what’s best they think everybody else thinks is cool. I was fighting for my life and I understood more about life than most 40-year-olds do.

Chris Williams:

Yes I bet. Wow. Then all the mountaineering and adventures you’ve done, any – you know I hear these stories from these mountain climbs that are just – they can scare you to death. I mean there’s so much out there and there’s so much that can happen that’s out of your control. What are people like when they’re on the mountains and how do you deliver hope in that kind of scenario? Obviously, you’re a very motivated guy and you seem to be able to deliver that well to other people.

Sean Swarner:

You know, it’ different because you run into all different types of people from all over the globe when you’re climbing. On Everest obviously people from all over the world come together at this one time of the year which is – they’re probably getting to base camp right around now. So, people from all over the world come together and they have different back stories, different life, different backgrounds, different everything, different cultures. So, what motivate one person doesn’t necessarily motivate the other person. Some people are there for selfish reasons, some people are there for higher purpose reason. Giving them some advice or reaching out to them, I’ve always told people that because of what I’ve been through, I see life a little bit differently. I see it through a set of rose colored lenses, but I’ve also decided a long time ago that no life is ever worth a hunk of rock and ice.

The mountain will always be there and I didn’t want to come home in a pine box.You have to understand how fragile life is and never put your life in jeopardy or in danger. I take what I call calculated risks. I’m probably one of the safest climbers out there because of what I’ve been through. I’m not going to get myself through two cancers where I was, like I said, given three month to live or 14 days to live. I’m not going to get myself through two cancer and go kill myself on a hunk of rock and ice because like I said, it’s just not worth it. It never will be.

Chris Williams: 

Wow. Good advice for loving life. Great advice.

Question 4: Sean, how are you sharing hope today? What are you doing out there in the community? Obviously, motivational speaking and so many public events that you’re doing. Talk about those, but also throw in a few just stuff with the next door neighbor, the guy you meet at a coffee shop, some really practical everyday stuff. How are you sharing hope?

Sean Swarner: 

That’s kind of fun. I have my own charity called the Cancer Climber Association. We just awarded our adventure support grant to a cancer survivor. We’re taking him over to climb Kilimanjaro this July. I do it every year as a fund raiser for my charities. It will be summit 11 I think. It’s just a lot of fun getting over there. I love the culture, I love the people.

I also do volunteer work. I’m working with – I just got in touch with a local person in Dunlop Front Range near Boulder, Colorado.We’re going to be trying to visit some patients there, doing some help there, doing some volunteer work. I guess one of the biggest reasons I’m still doing what I’m doing – because like everybody else, I get frustrated doing what I’m doing. Sometimes I feel like I hit a wall, you know, the mountain’s too big, I can’t push through. But, I always go back to this story and it always reminds me of why I’m doing what I’m doing. It’s not necessarily what, but it has to be the why and that’s what you have to figure out yourself. So many people say, well I’m doing it because of this, this, this and this but you really have to narrow it down to the why. Why you’re doing it and what’s the passion behind it.

I really enjoy – if we’re doing a happy hour, I’ll go have some beers. I love hanging out with them and doing that, but there’s a long line of people and I was talking to one lady and we just got done wrapping up. I forget what it was what we were talking about, but I looked at the next lady in line and her eyes were just absolutely bloodshot. I can remember looking at her and instantly knowing that she was crying and she told me that – well first of all she came up to me and just latched on to me, hugged on to me, buried her face in my chest and just lost it. I finally helped calm her down and she told me in the past year she lost her son to cancer, she lost her husband to cancer. There were only three of them, it was her, her son and her husband. She lost her entire family to cancer. This probably happened in the process of six months. Lost her son, lost her husband to cancer and she got diagnosed for the third or fourth time with breast cancer. She told me that she came to that conference with a suicide note in her hotel room fully knowing that she was not going to come home because there was nothing left to live for andShe told me that after listening to my talk, she told me I saved her life.

Chris Williams: 

That’s incredible. That’s pretty rewarding work you’re doing right there.

That’s so important and the guest do all the talking on the show which is why I’m the lucky guy who don’t have to say much and theinterviews come out much better that way. That suicidal connection is part of my past and it’s so true when you’re really, reallydesperate and you’re really at the bottom then there’s somebody who comes around. It’s funny how it happens. It’s like God plans itfor you, but there’s something that happens and somebody shows up, says the right thing or pushes you on another five minutes and that’s what you need to get over the hump. It’s incredible. I’m glad you’re so authentic and real and sharing your story because a lot of people don’t do that. I think people are so sick and tired of fake and they want to see some real life, you know?

Sean Swarner:

I completely agree. I have this whole pendulum theory of what people like to watch on TV. It swings from one side to the other and the other and I think right now it’s hopefully swinging from – no offense to anybody out there who likes this stuff, but that reality crap that’s on TV now, you know hopefully it’s going to swing from that side way back over to the other side and hopefully we’re going to have some meaningful TV again.

Chris Williams:

That’d be great. I don’t think reality TV is very real.

Sean Swarner:

Yeah.

Chris Williams: 

All right.

Question 5: How can we start sharing hope or become more hopeful?

Give me some simple steps. For those of us who haven’t climbed Everest recently, what do we do?

Sean Swarner: 

I haven’t climbed Everest recently either, so maybe  you guys can give me some advice. I would say – you know like I said earlier, I do have a book called Keep Climbing and people have told me it’s one of the best books they’ve read. It was initially sent out there as a climbing book which I disagree with the publisher left and right telling them, you know, how many climbers do you know? Whatever that number is, how many people touched by cancer do you know? It’s like you can’t walk down the street without bumping into 30 people who knows someone touched by cancer. So, I mean dropped the bomb on that one and missed the boat, whatever analysis you want to hear.

So, I’m thinking of writing another book and it’s based on this idea of again my life, but like you said, jokingly, not many people are going to be climbing Everest and I climbed Everest – great, wonderful, fantastic, big deal, it’s an accomplishment, but that’s not relatable and that’s not what I’m trying to do with my life. What is relatable is the fact that I go through struggles too. I went through struggles to go accomplish a goal. My two cancers, whatever got in my way of accomplishing that goal, everybody has down days, everybody has sad days, everybody has frustration, everybody has days where they want to give up including myself. That is what is relatable to people. It’s not looking at someone on TV and saying, oh man, look at that Brad Pitt, look at that other person, there’s nothing that you…

For me personally, there’s nothing I have in relation to say, Brad Pitt. He’s worth billions of dollars no matter how much it is. I don’t have that. I can’t relate to his daily life, but what I can relate to in his daily life are his struggles and the things that he has to overcome on a daily basis. That puts us all in the same plane and I think people who are losing hope have to realize that we all struggle with something on a daily basis and you have to keep your focus on what you have in mind. I tell people to do that. When they’re developing their goals, most people do it incorrectly. They start to the bottom and they work their way up to the top. They work their way up to their goal. Start in your mind’s eye you’re successful and start by closing your eyes every night and picturing what you want and what you truly want to work for. Use as many senses as you can.

For me, an example would be climbing Everest. I picture myself on top, smelling the ozone, feeling the cold skin or the cold on my skin, feeling the sun on my face, hearing the sounds of the climbers crampons crunching through the ice. It sounds like Styrofoam, but in my mind’s eye, before I even begin down that path towards that goal, I picture myself successful. I take that analogy of climbing the mountain and flip it upside down. I say flip the mountain and start successful. That way, if you ever encounter any frustration along the way, it will never be enough to make you stop. It will just frustrate you enough to slow you down. It will never be enough to frustrate you to quitting.

Chris Williams:

Great advice. So, let me just say that back to make sure I’ve got it. So, we’re going to take where we want to be, the long term goal of growing in hope or changing our life in some way. If it’s an addiction, if it’s a mental illness, if it’s cancer, whatever it may be that we need to get hope, from a relationship even, where do we want that to be? What are we hoping that will look like and really fixing that in our minds or imagination and then keeping that forefront versus how hard this next step is going to be, but keeping the end-goal in focus. Is that what you’re saying because otherwise those little steps end up getting way bigger than they should.

Sean Swarner:  

Right. I don’t want it to sound like – I like to call that magic feathers syndrome. I’ll explain that in a second. Everybody’s seen or heard of Dumbo, you know, the magic feather that he holds, if he wishes hard enough it’s going to happen. Most Disney moviesare like this. I call it the magic feather syndrome where people just sit back and they wish and wish and wish and oh, it happened. NO, you have to work towards that goal. So, you can’t just have the magic feather syndrome and have it happen to you magically. The fairy dust isn’t going to come by and say, poof, you’re a millionaire or whatever goal you want to have. You have to work on it and you have to put that effort into it.

So, with the goals in mind, yes, visualize it, make it true in your mind, but you have to put the work into making whatever you want to come true.

Chris Williams: 

Great. Great advice. A fun question we get to ask everybody is, when you’re just feeling a little down and need something to get you going again, what are you going to listen to? What kind of music do you like? Give me a band and a song or something like that.

Sean Swarner:

Well, I’m kind of into Pandora right now and I clicked on classics and I’m thinking holy crap, I know all these songs now. I don’t know if I’m out dating myself or not, but I also do songs that my dad loves and my mom loves, that 60s and everything. But,Aerosmith is now a classic. That scares me. Metallica is a classic, The Beastie Boys are in the classic station now. I don’t know what’s going on with this world, but I’m feeling old.

Chris Williams:

So, give me an Aerosmith or a Metallica classic that you like.

Sean Swarner: 

It’s kind of funny. I just played guitar heroes, Metallica’s One. I love that.

Chris Williams: 

Awesome. I love it. And an accomplished guitar heroist – is that how you say that? So many things. Well Sean, just phenomenaltalking to you. So, in a second I’ll say goodbye, we can close the audio out, but how can we get in touch with you Sean? What’s thebest way to follow you? Facebook, Twitter, social media, websites, what you got?

Sean Swarner: 

It’s easy. Just go to seanswarner.com. That’s Sean like Sean Connery and then Swarner just like the Warner Brother’s, but slap an S on the front.

Chris Williams: 

Great. Seanswarner.com. Man, we’ll look it up. That’s awesome. Thank you so much for your time, man. What a privilege to talk to you. What a fun conversation and man, I’m extremely impressed. You’ve knocked a lot off things off the bucket list.

Sean Swarner: 

Cool. Well, Chris I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Chris Williams:

Alright. Talk to you soon, buddy.

Sean Swarner: 

Take Care

You’ve just listened to I Share Hope. If you’re ready to make a change, head to our website at isharehope.com and claim your free copy of the Top Ten Actions of Hope from World Leaders to use hope in your own life. Thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next time.

Sean Swarner:  

I gave a talk to the United States Marine Corps not too long ago and those are the, pardon  my French, the bad asses of the bad asses. They’re tough guys and I told them, you know, if you look at the sports world and you look at all the professional athletes outthere, the basketball players or baseball players, football players, soccer players, if you look at Everest, the seven summits, theHawaii Ironman and now the South Pole, I’m the only person in the world who’s done that. Cancer survivor, no cancer survivor, onelung, two lungs, there’s one person out of over 7 billion people done in the planet who’s done what I’ve done. 

Chris Williams: 

That’s awesome – and you can play Guitar Hero really well.

Sean Swarner:  

Yeah!

Chris Williams: 

My three-year-old questions. I have a bunch of these that always pop in my head.

So, 12 flags on the South Pole, I already got that one out of the way, but when you’re going up these mountains, we don’t know the seven names of these seven mountains on these continents, so fire off the seven continents and the mountains so we can track with that.

Sean Swarner: 

Okay. Cool. I’ll do it in the order that I climbed them. I got the big one on first, Everest, Asia, that was the first one. Second one was Kilimanjaro in Africa and I take a group up every year so if anybody wants to go up, we’re still looking for people. So,Everest – Asia, KilimanjaroAfrica, ElbrusEurope, AconcaguaSouth America, Kosciuszko – Australia, Vinson Massif – Antarctica and Denali or Mt. McKinley, same thing, tomato-tomato, Denali up in Alaska for North America.

Chris Williams: 

Next question, anything you’re scared of doing right now from an adventure standpoint? Is there something that just says, man that freaks me out. I cannot swim or whatever it may be.

Sean Swarner:

I think kids. That kind of scares me right now.

Chris Williams: 

I’ve got five and it freaks me out everyday.

Sean Swarner: 

I want to have a family someday, but maybe the next couple of years I’ll start looking at having a family, but my brother just had a kid last October, so October 2013 and I think that’s good for me right now, but eventually, kids will scare me and the future with the kids will scare me. So, I’m kind of scared of how much college is going to cost for my child by the time he or she is 18. Is it like a hundred grand a year or something? I don’t know. It’s something crazy. It keeps going up and up and up.

Chris Williams: 

Yes it does. How many miles did you have to walk to get from the boat to the middle of Antarctica where the South Pole is?

Sean Swarner: 

We actually flew from Punta Arenas, Chile to Union Glacier Camp, Antarctica on a huge plane called A Russian Illusion and then from there we took a little puddle jumper. I think it was a twin otter fitted with skis and we went to  just north of the 89th parallel and then one thing that kind of blew my mind when I got there was I stood at the South Pole and every single direction I looked was north.

Chris Williams: 

That’s cool. Is there some really cheesy tourist attraction right there that you charge $20 for?

Sean Swarner:

Something tells me the South Pole really isn’t a touristy destination, but another cool thing is in about 15 seconds when I walk around the South Pole, I went through 24 different time zones.

Chris Williams:

That’s awesome. I love that. I bet you can have your iPhone in there watching it.  What is your most interesting thing you’re hoping to do next? Where are you going? Is there another adventure lined up? What’s up on the list.

Sean Swarner:  

Well, hopefully I have a documentary going through the Serengeti in Tanzania and then a week after that, doing the 11th trip of Kilimanjaro and then taking people through the Serengeti safari.  But, I would also love to host my own adventure travel show.

Chris Williams:  

That’s great. You could totally do that since you’re the only guy who has done what you have done.