Allan Goldberg is more than qualified.
He’s qualified.
The new director for First Descents, the Vail- based kayak camp for young adult cancer fighters, battled a rare soft tissue cancer with a 3 percent survival rate before he turned 13. He became a career soldier in the crusade against the ugliest disease, working most recently for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He quadrupled attendance at California’s Camp Okizu, a summer camp he directed that since 1982 has girded more than 3,000 kids for their darkest challenges.
And in July, a few days after his First Descents debut leading cancer survivors in kayaks, doctors found cancerous growths in the 39-year-old athlete’s back.
“Obviously it was upsetting, but I’m at a point where I feel good and I feel ready for battle. I got my Lance face on,” he said, noting that the diagnosis for recovery is good and that this cancer certainly came from the high doses of radiation he endured as a kid. “The joke is that maybe I should ramp back a little bit when I take on a new mission. Maybe I should not embrace it so fully. Maybe I took it too far.”
In the few months since he took the reins at First Descents, the 5-year-old program has undergone long-pondered changes. Instead of targeting kids, First Descents now aims to help young adults over 18.
The new plan comes from stagnant recovery rates for young adults with cancer and watching cancer- kicking campers after their First Descents experience. Every camper always leaves with something that betters their life, mainly the ability to regain the playful, youthful exploration stolen by cancer, said Brad Ludden, a professional kayaker who formed First Descents in 2001. But the 20-somethings used their First Descents experience to go further than regaining what was taken, he said. It fueled their successes, their pursuit of a job and independence and a family. The camps empowered them to live their life well because of cancer, not despite the disease’s abuse.
“They are the most underserved demographic of cancer and they are the most in need of help demographic,” Ludden said. “They are dealing with big changes in their life: college, getting jobs, creating financial and social independence, raising a family. And then cancer gets thrown at them. We found they need help and no one is really out there helping them.”
Goldberg’s voice is one that reaches deep into the hearts and minds of battle-weary soldiers facing more needles, scalpels and chemicals.
“He speaks the language that you need to have had cancer to speak,” Ludden said. “Then with this ironically cruel twist of fate … it has given us even more insight into the cancer world. He’s actually excited to use this situation to help raise awareness of what more needs to be done.”
Goldberg’s role as athlete – he’s raced in ultramarathons – and decorated veteran in the war on cancer made him the perfect choice for First Descent’s first executive director, even before the latest diagnosis. The germinal program began as an all-volunteer program with several small kayaking camps every summer. Last summer they hosted 60 young adult cancer fighters in four camps.
The evolution under Goldberg aims to elevate First Descents well beyond small kayak camps. Offerings will expand to a wider array of sports, from hiking and climbing to surfing and kayaking. Numbers will increase from several dozen a year to 1,000, maybe more.
Most important for Goldberg is providing what he calls “Lt. Dan moments.” Remember when legless Lt. Dan in the movie “Forrest Gump” ties himself to the top of Gump’s mast and screams angrily at God to “Bring it on?” After the storm and after the yelling, the troubled character finds some inner peace.
“On the river, that anger comes out and it’s taken out on the river and you come through the other side with this huge sigh of relief,” Goldberg said. “It isn’t a sigh because you got through but because you are battling demons that need to be battled. You are fighting.”
On Nov. 8, First Descents will host a fundraiser with several restaurants in Edwards.
Go to www.firstdescents.org or call Goldberg at 970-328-7999 for more information.
