Chad Dunbar was 45 and in great shape when doctors told him he had lung cancer. It caught him totally off guard because he didn’t smoke and was super active.
He led the biggest youth cycling team in the U.S. and had just finished riding over 3,000 mountain miles in one season. He said his lungs were probably the strongest part of his body.
In a video he shared through a cancer charity, Dunbar said: “The nurse came in she’s like, ‘Hey, we think you have lung cancer’. I was thinking, man, there’s no way. I was doing 3,000 miles on my mountain bike every season and my lungs were probably the healthiest piece of me.”
He went on: “You know it was surreal, it was denial, it was p**sed off, I’d get mad a lot… I had a lot of questions, ‘How, why me?'”
By the time the cancer was found, it had already spread to his brain, liver, bones, and lymph nodes near his heart. That update came from the same charity that posted his story online.
His first real symptom wasn’t even in his chest. Dunbar explained that it was just ‘pain and swelling in my calf’ and at first he thought he had overworked the muscle.
It turned out to be stage 4 cancer. The diagnosis came as a shock to everyone, considering how subtle the signs were.
Lung cancer symptoms can vary but often include a cough that won’t go away, coughing up blood, being short of breath, and extreme tiredness. Chad didn’t have those.
Doctors later said his cancer was caused by a RET mutation, which is a rare genetic change that makes cells grow out of control. It’s not tied to smoking, and in his case it’s what started the whole thing.
RET mutation-related lung cancer can spread quickly, sometimes to the legs, which may cause pain or even fractures. That explained the calf pain.
Even after hearing how advanced the cancer was, Chad stayed hopeful. He was told he had a five percent chance of living more than five years.
He said: “I thought, ‘Hey, you know what? Freaking five percent, I’ll take those odds.”
