“100 More Steps” : Endurance, Acceptance, and Brain Cancer
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“I kept saying…what is the best possible outcome right now?”
Amanda is a 43-year-old ultra endurance athlete who began experiencing strange symptoms in 2024: pressure headaches, déjà vu, vision problems, and eventually bizarre behaviors like eating off an upside-down plate and walking out of her shoe without noticing. After an urgent care doctor dismissed her symptoms as TMJ (lockjaw?!), her leg buckled in her own bedroom, sending her to the emergency room where an MRI revealed the truth: glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.
Amanda's journey from diagnosis through an eight-hour awake craniotomy to her current life 16 months post-diagnosis is marked by perseverance and not anger or fear…but love.
Drawing on her experience as an ultra endurance athlete—particularly a brutal 36-hour race in Stratton, Vermont, where she trained in relentless rain and mud—Amanda applies the same mindset that got her through the worst physical challenges of her life to this new reality. Today, she jokes in her hardest hours that “
In this episode, Amanda and Cody discuss the immediate acceptance she felt upon diagnosis, the "scanxiety" she experiences every 10 weeks, the heartbreak of losing friends with glioblastoma , and why she chose not to see her cancer as an enemy.
Amanda has made it past the 16-month median survival time for glioblastoma and is currently training for the same endurance event she was preparing for when diagnosed, hoping to raise $5,000 for brain cancer research through Stash Strong.
Amanda's athletic background provides a unique lens for understanding resilience, and her honest discussion of both the joyful and devastating aspects of her journey offers a masterclass in living fully while facing an uncertain future.
Help research.
As Amanda mentions in her episode, she is raising funds for Stache Strong in support of brain cancer research. Please help if you can.
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Listen to Cody’s reflection on his conversation with Amanda, in which her mantra—as she’s heading into fully awake brain surgery for hours—brings home a message of presence and acceptance.
For more information on the sponsor of this podcast,
please visit the Iliff Death Care Collective.
>>Theme Music by Michael Shynes, "The Other Side"<<
Music featured in this week's episode (please follow and support these beautiful artists):
Logan Pilcher - Brighter Days
Anthony Lazaro - Kisses and Heartbeats
Claire Kelly - Together Again
