Bowie man tackled a mountain called cancer. Now he’s going after Kilimanjaro

In when he was years old Eric Morrow of Bowie was diagnosed with prostate cancer Now having climbed that mountain called cancer this weekend he and about others including a multitude of survivors will be joining the CEO of the Alexandria Virginia-based Zero Prostate Cancer nonprofit to begin a fundraising trek up Mount Kilimanjaro About of prostate cancer cases are considered early onset and Morrow fell into that group He had no effects and he made it sound like it was unveiled almost accidentally It was a totally unrelated routine exam that kind of put the doctors on to trying to investigate what was going on with me Morrow stated And when I was diagnosed they discovered that the cancer had invaded my pelvic lymph nodes already and that it was very aggressive So it was kind of spreading speedily In hindsight Morrow checks a lot of boxes that made him a candidate for early-onset prostate cancer He has African lineage and a family history and he s also former military At the time of his finding he admits he was worried his days were numbered But after surgery and radiation and two years of hormone therapy he counts himself as a prostate cancer survivor However he s also been communicated he absolutely won the battle and that the war will return to his body at particular point A leading nonprofit that helps Morrow credits the nonprofit Zero Prostate Cancer for helping him and others get through it Zero Prostate Cancer is possibly the leading nonprofit here in the U S that s focused on the case and survivor experience with prostate cancer he mentioned They have a organization of help groups that they run to help connect new patients with men who ve been living with prostate cancer in specific cases for decades to provide them peer-to-peer counseling services Since his recovery he s gone all in to help that group continue the work He describes it as his mission And as part of that Morrow is joining in the organization s inaugural fundraising trek up Mount Kilimanjaro It s the tallest peak in Africa at more than feet above sea level The trek at the bottom starts with a warm almost jungle-like setting However at the very top it can be well below freezing I m nervous but it s a excited kind of nervous Morrow announced I think I ve done everything in my power short of taking a month and flying to Colorado to train that I can to prepare for this Training to take on a challenge That preparation started with building up his cardio endurance at the start of the year In modern months he s spent a lot of time hiking around nearby mountains that offer at least selected elevation like in the Harpers Ferry area But he knows there s nothing that will really replicate what he s about to get into The altitude is definitely going to be a challenge And I m going to have to have to draw on a lot of kind of previous experiences that have given me several mental toughness he explained And you know we re taking a slow approach also It s going to take us a total of six days to reach our high camp at about feet Morrow reported The hope is that their bodies will gradually acclimate to the altitude that way Summit day is going to be a huge challenge We re getting up at about midnight layering up The guides have stated us to expect temperatures down to potentially negative degrees and it s about a three-mile hike from our high camp up to the summit he noted But because of the thin air and the steepness of the grade it s going to take us about seven hours to do that So we ll get to the summit right after sunrise spend about minutes celebrating and taking pictures and then we have a seven-mile trek back down to a lower camp where we can rest for the evening If all goes well that will happen on Monday Sept I ve desired to do Kilimanjaro for a number of years I thought it would be something really exciting to do Morrow mentioned But my reason for going on this specific adventure is to show men everywhere that although a prostate cancer finding is going to be life changing and there s no getting around that it doesn t have to be life limiting You can still do huge things he promised Click here to find out more about the Zero Prostate Cancer Zero Peaks Challenge or to donate to the cause Source