Chuck Keels is a Stage 4 Cancer Survivor. Get Up and Live is the motto of his life-changing work with the Living Hope Cancer Foundation. Things went way off the roadmap during a bike tour of Italy to raise funding and awareness for the mission to help cancer patients and their loved ones. Thomas Baldrick hosts a special Binge with Baldrick podcast episode to share the heartbreaking yet heartwarming story. #chuckkeels #livinghopecancerfoundation #italytravel #cycling #thomasbaldrick #cancersurvivor #cancersupport #arizona
Next on Binge with Baldrick. Ever heard of a stage four cancer survivor more than 10 years later? Now you have Chuck Kes and his latest wild challenge. Coming up, this is Binge with Baldre. The interesting show for curious minds and hungry hearts. Here now, a guy who’s lived his entire life with artificial intelligence, Thomas Baldrick. [Music] Greetings, friends. Much love and gratitude for being here. I am Thomas Baldrick. I woke up today. Life is good. I am Julian Baldrick’s dad and today I am wearing There you go. on video, my grateful shirt. It’s fitting because I get to do a very special and very unusual show. So, let’s go. You’ve got cancer. What does a person do when they hear those words about themselves or a loved one? They freak out. They also hope for great treatment from an oncologist. And for more, some people go to my friend Chuck Kes. He is a stage four cancer survivor himself and far from a newbie. Chuck has been beating defying the odds for more than 10 years now. The Living Hope Cancer Foundation website is get upandlive.org. Its mission is loving, coaching, and supporting cancer patients and their loved ones using the tools that Chuck knows helped to save him. things such as love, prayer, a personal fight plan. You need a plan, books, juicing, botanicals, essential oils, nutrition, and last but far from least, inspiration and motivation, honoring the credo, get up and live. I’m working with cancer patients every day, all day, on the phone, uh, FaceTime, um, Zoom meetings. I’m working with cancer patients all over the world. That’s what I do. I love on everybody, the cancer patient, their family, their co-workers, their church members, whoever’s around them that love them. We’re all in this together. And so, we coach the positive mindset and what to do after your diagnosis when people are just flipping out. Right now, let me take you behind the curtain. Chuck Kels is in Italy. A couple of days into a trip being on top of the world, he had another setback. What I really mean by this is Chuck Kels will now be making another comeback. Since I heard what happened to him, I have wanted to help. We are both card carrying members of the solo dad club. We share another similar trait. We both would do just about anything for just about anybody. And the hardest thing for us is allowing others to help us when we need it. So I am here in the moment to help Chuck with more of that lesson and keep learning it myself. And maybe hopefully you’ll want to help, too. I’m in Arizona. We were scheduled to record a virtual chat. Not so fast. Chuck is recuperating in a beach house off the beautiful Adriatic Sea. Breathtaking views, no Wi-Fi. We tried every which way. Later, I discovered we got caught up in the Amazon Web Services glitch, which crippled a good portion of the internet. Okay, a mountain to climb. Find a way. Chuck suggested we reschedu when he gets back to the US. I said, “Let me think about it. I have. But even better than thinking creatively, I have followed my intuition. Something kept telling me this would be much better to do when he was still in Italy. And so we shall, only we’ll tell that story not at all as planned. Chuck and I both know, and hopefully you know it, too. Tomorrow is promised to no one. I am here today. You are here today. So, let’s do this. And I’ll let you in on a little secret. Chuck Kes does not know I’m doing this. It is a gift. I hope it cheers him up just a tad. So, today, here’s the game plan. For starters, all you have to do is watch or listen. What I’ve done is find videos of Chuck talking about his latest adventure, find a way to create them, and try to weave all of this together, filling in the blanks as they come. [Music] So, first allow me to set up Chuck’s story for you and we will bring it full circle. May 15th, 2015, Chuck Kees is an active hiker and bike rider in pretty good shape. But he’s not feeling right. So, he goes to get checked out and gets a surprise. He is told he suffered two broken vertebrae. Now, this is a serious problem, but it was only the beginning. He then gets told everything he has been experiencing is related to cancer. A biopsy revealed he had prostate cancer. Not only that, it was stage 4. Keep in mind, 10 years ago, prostate cancer was in the stone ages compared to treatment today, worlds apart. How could it be cancer? He only noticed some fatigue and only recently had some aches and pains. He wondered, “Are you sure, doctor?” She was. It wasn’t just broken vertebrae and prostate cancer. Chuck’s prostate cancer had metastasized. It had spread to his bones, 90% of his bones. Chuck was given 3 months to live. Told there was nothing to do but enter hospice care for his pain. There was one other thing though. He had to go through the pain and shock of telling the two teenage boys he was raising what his prognosis was. 10 days later, the day they were flying to Ohio to be with Chuck’s family and friends, he was rushed to a hospital. Cancer had collapsed one of his vertebrae. The surgery he was required to have was successful beyond comprehension. Chuck’s own words explain what happened when he woke up after. There was someone next to his bed. I’m looking at Jesus. He’s looking at me. His hand reaches out and touches me on the shoulder. I didn’t see his mouth move, but I heard, “I got you.” Moments later, Chuck said he no longer felt pain. This was not a religious man before this moment, but every moment since then, Chuck Kils has been living with Jesus in what he calls his God school. After chemotherapy, Chuck went back to his doctor. He said she’s got a big smile on her face and she said, “Your journey is not of medicine. It’s miraculous. your scans, they look like a normal, healthy guy. There were no signs of cancer or any visible damage to his bones. Incredible. Now, you may understand why since then, Chuck Kees has walked his talk. Being a kind soul, he took interest in helping others deal with their cancer battles. The man has lived fully. He married one of the most courageous women I’ve ever met. Hannah Keels was herself a stage four cancer survivor. I can never imagine how Hannah Keels endured all she did. As cancer would do what it wanted to her body when it wanted. Hannah would get knocked down by cancer, but she would get back up. She would heal. Cancer would return how and when and where it wanted. Hannah would again fight. she would again heal. Chuck and Hannah Kels founded the Living Hope Cancer Foundation. All the while, Hannah lived her life with courage, kindness, gratitude, and a fight not only for herself and her loved ones, but for strangers. She finally passed in November 2022, but only after supporting Chuck on their bicycle ride across the United States to raise money and awareness for their mission with cancer. On that trip from San Diego to St. Augustine, Chuck had a crash. But guess what? He gets up and he gets going again. That’s what he does and gets others to do. Fast forward to 2025. This walk in life has me in a situation now where I’ve become an evangelist. I’m I’m a preacher. I’m a dude out there telling people about my testimony, my story. Vana Grande. Gosh, look who snuck up on me. Oh, you scared me. And my beautiful H. This relationship with Vana is is so dreamy. Uh we actually had shared a romantic kiss uh seven days after we met and became friends and started talking and looked each other in the eyes and was like what is going on here? I feel my heart beating for the first time since my beautiful wife passed away. And she said I heard I feel my heart beating for the first time in 5 years uh since I went through a terrible a terrible divorce. Vana has been an angel on earth to him in every way and some. Now, Chuck, if the cancer thing doesn’t work out for you, buddy, you could easily coach people on how to find, grow, and enjoy love with amazing, beautiful women. What is seriously cool is how Chuck dreamed up a way to combine his love for Vana, his love for the Living Hope Cancer Foundation, and his love for cycling. Team get up and live. Team get up and live, baby. And now bike across the entire country of Italy. Americana north bud. Americans going from north to south on a crazy 900 kilometer bike ride from the top of Italy to the bottom. My crew here, Eric is the guy that trained me on the bike ride across the country. He’s ride with us. Eric lost his wife to cancer. Logan lost his beautiful mom to cancer. Logan is Hannah’s son. We’re writing to bring more awareness about the foundation that coaches people for free after their cancer diagnosis and spreads hope and love. It was a love fest. All right. But not as anyone planned or wanted. Day two of the scheduled 12-day ride. Chuck had a serious mishap. Hey, Chuck Heels here live from a hospital in Italy. Four miles to go. I swerved, hit some other level area. My back tired and kicked out. But as I started to fall, there was a pull. There was a pull there and my leg took the hit. A severe compound fracture required two surgeries to repair the badly broken leg. But there was more. Another broken heart. No doubt he will find ways to use this latest challenge to inspire and help others. And unfortunately, the ride was uh scratched. That’s a big mess. That’s a that was hard. And there’s other parts that go with that, too. Um not only were were we raising awareness, we were raising funding funding to help my foundation grow. And that’s kind of come can there’s still a few and thank you guys for the donations that are still coming in even though the the butts aren’t on the bike seats anymore based on the situation. I am happy to give a quick shout out to those who sponsored and supported the get up and live bike ride in Italy. Edison Oncology, Life Priority, Rakavina Therapeutics, Kate’s Real Food, Calvary Chapel of Queen Creek, Arizona, and the Egg and Cheese Shop in Willamant, Connecticut, owned by an angel named Hannah. Thank you one and all. While recovering from his surgeries, Chuck was also handed a reminder he didn’t need. A reminder that cancer waits for no one. A lovely young woman he had been coaching passed away. Are there hard things in life that make us wonder, God, why would you allow that to happen? And the death of a loved one may be a reminder of why we should stop today and thank God for the breath that we just took in our lungs. Thank God for opening our eyes this morning. Thank God for our heartbeating today. My why in sharing this story has multiple aspects. One is to say, Chuck Kees, I am proud of you. When friends fall down, it’s great to see them get back up and you both feel better if you can help them. For the heartbroken, this is a great story to remind you it is possible. You can be happy again and in love again. You can get up and live again. For those who are down, this story may help you to realize you too have a comeback in you. You too can write your own comeback story. And for those many of those caught up in the great divide of politics, which seems to have gotten even worse than the divisiveness around religion. Me telling you this story shows there are ways to honor respect and still enjoy relationships despite differences. Here is what I mean. I am one of the kindest fellas you’ll ever meet. It took me a long time to own that and be able to say that. Yet in this episode specifically, I also feel the need to own that I am deeply spiritual but not religious. On the other hand, Chuck Kels is a mighty follower of Jesus Christ. He loves Jesus, is devoted to him 24/7. He’s devoted to the teachings and turns over everything in his life to Jesus. Chuck believes he doesn’t have a plan. He just follows God’s plan. So, we are different. So what this story invites you to join me in choosing to just let it go. Let people be different. Let people be who they are. Letting those in power divide us only gives them strength, not us. And my final reason for telling this story goes back to what I said earlier. For starters, all you have to do is watch or listen. Now, if you’ve gotten this far, I will suggest more. Chuck’s crash basically shut down the goal of raising funding and awareness for the Living Hope Cancer Foundation. So, if you care to donate, go to get upandlive.org. If you don’t remember that, just contact me. If you want to raise awareness for Chuck and his mission, won’t cost you a penny. Simply share this story, this inspiration. Share this episode in social media or with anyone you know dealing with cancer. And finally, if you will, Chuck Kees would love if you would just say a prayer for him and Vonya. I’m Thomas Baldrick. Thank you for sharing your time, your eyes and ears, and your heart with me today. If you like this show, please subscribe and share Binge with Baldrick. Until next time, Godspeed, my friends. And in the ultimate pickme up for Chuck, I end every episode spreading the love of Philadelphia Eagles fans. So, while I will say go birds, I’ll also throw in a go Buckeye for his beloved Ohio State Buckeyes. Ciao. Oh, I know.