Warrior

When Luke endures cancer at age eight, he toughens up and battles a shape-shifting adversary for fifty-seven years. To fight back, he letters in track and football in high school; joins the Marines to become a battle-hardened lance corporal; achieves dual PhD degrees in exercise physiology and sports psychology; and cofounds the nation's first cardiac rehabilitation center. In tandem with his remarkable academic and career achievements, Luke demonstrates superhuman resilience through extreme athletic feats. His dangerous pursuits validate the life-sustaining power of a wellness mindset and positive risk-taking.With Jody, his equally courageous lover at his side, he leaps nine stories from a bridge into the Missouri River with nine feet of water depth; scuba dives underwater nonstop for over forty hours; free-falls over one mile during his first skydive; swims 375 miles from Kansas City to St. Louis in the Missouri River while fighting hypothermia; and scales the tallest skyscraper in Denver to support medical research. During these severe tests of willpower, he confronts four cancer recurrences with the courage and resolve of a health warrior able to do what it takes to survive. Luke's severe trials of strength and resolve also reveal wellness lessons that can inspire and inform readers facing significant health challenges such as cancer.