In 2014, while still an active cancer patient, Dean Hall decided to inspire other cancer patients by chasing his dream of becoming the first person to swim the entire 187-mile length of the Willamette River, never guessing it would heal his leukemia.
- 03:35: Well, I fell in love with soccer and so I played it constantly.
- 05:52: I became a therapist and started my private practice in this tiny little town,
- 08:11: It never occurred to me that it came back bad because something was wrong with me.
- 10:06: Dean, you've got leukemia.
- 12:14: I was just in shock for about two weeks and devastated.
- 14:28: You've got to be the boss of your journey and your body and your future.
- 16:51: Did you ever do what would be considered traditional treatment?
- 19:17: I would sleep 20 hours a day.
- 21:20: Tell us about your first wife.
- 22:56: Then August of 2010, she started acting kind of funny.
- 25:52: I was astonished, and it is a real testament to her strength and her discipline.
- 29:44: All the rest of the time I'm just by myself feeling miserable both inside and out.
- 32:15: I started praying and meditating, asking every day for a purpose to just come forward.
- 34:08: If I'm dying, I want to die swinging for the fence.
- 35:30: The lymph system had pushed out all this poison that it had been holding and so I'd feel flu-like symptoms for about five hours after.
- 37:59: I was born only four blocks from the Willamette, so I've always loved this river.
- 40:17: After you did [do] this swim over three weeks, what happened?
- 42:49: Being in that cold water threw me into something called Radical Remission.
- 44:09: What is one thing you wish you had known at the very beginning of your cancer journey?
- 44:50: If you could only do one thing to improve health care in the U.S., what would it be and why?
- 45:49: Thriver Rapid Fire Questions.
- 48:23: Aside from Cancer U, what is one resource you would recommend for cancer patients and caregivers?
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