Mike Rogers © Colin Bane
Cancer Survivor Mike Rogers Lives to Skate, Skates to Live
Apr 03 2007 / Los Angeles, CA
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Lat34: I had to go and look up “sarcoma cancer” on the Internet. Now I sort of wish I hadn’t. Tell me about what you’ve been through and how it brought you to doing Grind for Life.
MR: Sarcoma cancers are soft–tissue tumors. They’re really rare, but are usually found in the muscles in your legs or arms, which is plenty gnarly. Mine was in my head! When I was a kid, I had a tumor behind my right eye. Back in the early 80s they didn’t have the protocols they have now, so they just gave me the most chemo and radiation I could handle and I ended up surviving it. Then, 25 years later, I get a really bad runny nose one day and get diagnosed with a nasal infection. It turns out my sarcoma had come back.
Lat34: How was it treated the second time around?
MR: The best doctors at my local hospital… they’d never seen anything like it before. With some of these really rare cancers, there are only one or two places in the world that know what they’re doing. My girlfriend Jill went on the Internet to research everything, and Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manahattan came up. They’re the world’s best, which is what you need when you need something like a cranial-facial resection with a brain lift.
Lat34: Define “brain lift.”
MR: What they do is they crack open the front of your face, lift your forehead and your brain up, and get in there and go to work. In my case, they also went through my cheekbone and took out my eye, and replaced some of the muscles with muscles from my stomach so I wouldn’t have a big deformity on the side of my face. I was in surgery for 17 hours and microsurgery for 6 hours under a microsope, but I ended up surviving it and was back on a skateboard 10 weeks later. I ended up getting 11th place at the Soul Bowl contest, like eight months after the surgery. When you come through something like that, you’re in a big hurry to get back to your life.
Lat34: How did Grind for Life first come together?
MR: The first Grind for Life event was a fundraiser some friends put on to help get me back on my feet, and ever since then I’ve seen it as an opportunity to put on good skateboarding events and use all my knowledge and experience as a cancer survivor to help people with their burdens. I’m a skateshop owner and also the manager of the YMCA Oelsner Skate Park, so a lot of people in the skate scene wanted to help. Going through the surgery devastated me financially, on top of everything else, but the brotherhood of skateboarding came through for me.
Lat34: You didn’t have health insurance?
MR: You know what? I had really good health insurance, thankfully, through the YMCA. If I hadn’t had that, I would have been screwed. But even with insurance, I was still screwed! That’s how messed up the health care system in this country is. It’s terrible: You have to go through weeks and weeks of waiting just to get approval for the surgery and treatments you need, and then all the co-pays and other costs eventually wipe you out. That’s where Grind for Life comes in: We’re going around the country raising money so that we can help people out with these burdens.
Lat34: Obviously Lance Armstrong has made a big splash with the LIVESTRONG campaign, but we’re also seeing the action sports industry rise to the occasion: Grind for Life, Boarding For Breast Cancer… I see on your blog you’re going to be at the Sean Slater Invitational for the World Skin Cancer Foundation in Cocoa Beach in a few weeks. What do you think is driving this level of consciousness and goodwill from within the industry?
MR: The people involved in these sports are some of the best people anywhere, by any measure. We’re also at the point in our industry now where we have big corporate and media involvement, and we are in a position to be able to use that to give back in a meaningful way. I think the industry has grown up a little bit in that sense. People are calling me “the Lance Armstrong of Skateboarding,” because I still compete at the World Cup Skateboarding level after what I’ve been through and I’m running this non-profit. It’s a flattering comparison, and I hope to be able to work with him some time.
Lat34: Tell me about the involvement of some of the big name skate pros.
MR: Something like one in four people will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their life, so literally everybody has a personal or family connection to this thing. We’ve gotten great support from all the top vert skaters – Andy Macdonald, Sandro Dias, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek – and also from great guys like Mike Vallely, Chris Miller, Tony Magnusson, Benji Galloway, and Will Powers. Last year Tony Hawk donated some stuff for our silent auction. I like to think I’ve been able to inspire and educate some people, and I know it satisfies these guys to know they are supporting something positive.
Lat34: My first instinct when I met you was to tell you about my brother-in-law who died of lung cancer a few years ago, and to say “thanks” for the work you’re doing. I’m sure you hear everybody’s horror stories, but you also get the flipside, getting to meet with survivors and being in a position to help others while they’re right in the middle of it.
MR: This year I got to hang out with two kids through the Make A Wish Foundation. One was a kid named Jared, from California. We got to meet him at the Pro-Tec Pool Party and then I got to see him again at the X Games, and he’d just gotten so much better in between. The other kid was a guy from Texas named Johnny. He came out for the Soul Bowl contest this year, and I got to see him and meet his family. Now he’s in remission too. It looks like they’re both going to be all right. Those are the good stories, to see people out there battling through and becoming fellow survivors.
Lat34: You’ve mentioned the Pro-Tec Pool Party and the Soul Bowl contest, and I know you’re skating the Etnies Bowl contest at the big Goofy vs. Regular event this weekend. Talk about motivation for survival! You’re a legendary pool skater, and you’ve lived to see the modern era of concrete skateparks. I’ve seen pictures of the bowls at some of your local parks, and I’m drooling.
MR: It’s a great time to be a pool skater, and it’s a great time to be alive, no doubt about it.
Lat34: Can you tell me about the Grind for Life team and events series?
MR: What we’re doing is involving youth in a bigger cause and trying to teach them that being a skater is not all about getting sponsored or doing well in a contest, it’s about being part of the brotherhood of skateboarding, learning some etiquette, supporting good things, making good choices, and giving back. You know why there are so many great skateparks in this country right now? It’s because skateboarders went out and got it done for each other. Grind for Life is about educating, inspiring, and teaching people to be a part of something that is positive and that gives back to people in need.
Lat34: I hate to ask but… is the sarcoma something that could still come back?
MR: If you have sarcoma and you’re in remission for seven years, they say you’re cured. But mine came back after 25 years, so I’m living every day to its fullest right to the very end. As a cancer survivor, you just look at every day and make sure you did as much as possible. You try not to think about the rest of it.
-Colin Bane
The 4th Annual Grind for Life Benefit & Awards Ceremony will be held on November 18, 2006 at Cocoa Beach Skatepark, Florida.
