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| RV-ing across the US to raise money for the National Brain Tumor Foundation |
It started as a last chance trip for love of trains and friendship. Now, three people in an old RV, purchased for $600, are on a crusade to cure brain tumors.
Eric Stephens, of San Jose, Calif., collapsed at home in February 2005. He'd just finished riding his mountain bike home from work.
"When I tried to stand up again, I just couldn't," Stephens said. Fighting the paralysis caused a nine-hour seizure, leading to kidney failure. Six months later, Stephens was told he had an inoperable brain tumor, the size of an apricot.
"At that point, we started realizing, it's now or never because if it's that aggressive, he might not be here in a year," Stephens's friend, Eugene Vicknair, said of the trip that's taking them across the western United States to look at historic railroads and railroad museums.
The group, which includes Vicknair's girlfriend Wendy Holtz and for the first part of the journey included a friend who's also a paramedic, is on the last leg of the adventure, heading back to San Jose. They started their trip July 13 by passing through the Nevada desert. Then they landed in Arizona for the Grand Canyon and stopped in New Mexico to see some American Indian sites there. They stopped in Colorado to see family and to participate in the National Brain Tumor Foundation's Angel Walk, and also hit Wyoming.
It's a trip the two friends have been talking about doing for 16 years, since they road tripped to Colorado to rescue a friend in need. Along the way, Stephens caught Vicknair's contagious love for tracks and everything that runs on them.
"This could be my last chance to really do something," Stephens said of the trip. His cancer is at stage four. Stage five is fatal.
"As long as they can stop its growth and treat it before it gets any bigger, I'm OK," Stephens said.
As the two men -- friends since high school when Stephens was Ebenezer Scrooge and Vicknair was Jacob Marley in "A Christmas Carol" musical -- planned the trip, they decided to make it bigger than just them.
They've turned the trip into one of awareness for brain tumors. They are trying to raise $5,000 for the National Brain Tumor Foundation. So far, they've raised $610 and they are already halfway through the trip. Fundraising efforts have been through a Web site and their RV, which is covered with decals about the trip and the foundation. A donation box by the door tells of their quest.
Part of the problem of fundraising, Vicknair said, is that the trip has cost much more than they expected. They fixed up the RV after finding it -- it had no floor, and Stephens, though paralyzed and using a scooter or walker for mobility, crawled on his stomach, stapling the carpet. They've cut costs where they can, but Vicknair estimates it will have cost $9,000-$10,000 by the time they arrive back in San Jose. It leaves little for the group to donate.
Highlights of the Utah part of the trip have included a stop at Dinosaur National Monument on Wednesday, and they will tour railroad museums in Salt Lake City and Ogden today.
Stephens has also seen several family members along the way. He's a descendent of Heber C. Kimball, an early LDS apostle, so while Vicknair may have had a railroad hobby longer, Stephens can share history from his Utah roots.
Seeing tumor survivors in Denver gives Stephens hope, and he already has ambitions for when the exhaustion from chemotherapy treatments finally fades. He'd like to be a disability advocate, making sure places comply with regulations in the Americans With Disability Act. He'd also like to have children with his wife, whom he calls "his rock" of strength as he's been in and out of the hospital.
Those interested in donating to the trip and its expenses can go to www.phoenixpartners.net/URA/. Those interested in making a donation to the National Brain Tumor Foundation in Stephens's and Vicknair's names can log on to www.FirstGiving.com/EricsBigAdventure.
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