Conrad Anker and Alex at the ACC. At the bottom of the white board under "Discharge Plan" they marked down the El Capitan climb.
Alex Wildman certainly lives up to his name. He is an avid adventurer who has taken on rock climbing challenges as treacherous as El Capitan in Yosemite, California, but by far his toughest feat has been his battle with cancer.
In January 2016 Alex was preparing for a trip of a lifetime to Patagonia in Argentina. He was 33 years old, incredibly active, and felt in good health until one night he woke up with excruciating stomach pain. He went to the ER and tests revealed a shocking diagnosis of stage 3 diffuse large B cell lymphoma. With his health and his four-year-old daughter in mind, Alex had to break the news to his travel companion that he wouldn’t be making the trip to Patagonia, and shifted his focus to the challenge of fighting his disease.
Alex knew he had to use the same strategies that get him to the top of mountains to win this battle. “If I’m ice climbing and I fall, there will be consequences. But I
Alex Wildman climbing El Capitan, 1,200 feet off the ground.
can’t think about that. I have to stay focused to finish the climb. I used that same mindset,” Alex shared. “This is a bad situation, but dwelling on it is isn’t going to get me out of it. I can dwell on it when I’m better.”
Although Alex was a bedside nurse at Princeton Health -- an institution he has the greatest respect for and that is now a part of Penn Medicine -- with the support of his colleagues he sought treatment at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center to be sure he was getting the most innovative care. Today, Alex is a proud member of the Penn team as a nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Sunita Nasta, MD, treated Alex using chemotherapy that was administered in six cycles every three weeks. “Dr. Nasta and all of the nurses on Rhoads 7 were phenomenal. They listened to me and were genuine. As a nurse, I’ve worked in a lot of different situations and I’ve seen people get generic answers to their questions, but I saw none of that at Penn. They all wanted to help me and they put me at ease.”
The support of Alex’s care team helped him climb the mountain to recovery, but it was a message from an unexpected source that gave him the final push to the top. Alex reached out to rock climbing super star Conrad Anker, team leader of the North Face climbing team, and told Mr. Anker about his cancer battle. Not only did Mr. Anker pay Alex a visit while he was undergoing treatment, but he promised to climb El Capitan with Alex when he is healthy.
Alex continued his treatments with Mr. Anker’s motto in mind, “Hold fast, all storms pass,” and in June 2017, when Alex’s scans were clear, the two of them climbed El Capitan. It took the pair four days to complete the climb, which was captured as a part of the documentary series Religion of Sports.
“When I got to the top at El Cap I thought, I can’t believe all of that just happened. When I was diagnosed with cancer, my life was put on pause. Being able to get up to the top of that mountain was like turning the pause button off and jumping back into my life.
Alex is jumping in with two feet through his personal perseverance as well as his advocacy. He is organizing a Penn team to take on a new kind of vertical challenge: climbing the stairs of FMC tower in University City. Join Alex and Big Climb Philly on May 19th to help support lymphoma research.
To learn more about lymphoma research, contact Katie Dewees Detzel at kdewees@upenn.edu or (215) 746 - 1927.