My name is Brett Nelson, and I am a stage 2 testicular cancer survivor. In the beginning of April, 2010 I had a painful lump on my testicle that had been there for a couple months so I went to see a urologist. After an ultrasound determined it was a tumor, my doc ordered a cat scan and scheduled me for surgery. The CT revealed that the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes which meant I would have to undergo chemotherapy. After surgery I needed to recover for a month since once chemo started my incision wouldn't heal anymore. A few days after surgery my wife, Kristen, who was 23 weeks pregnant went into pre-term labor, probably due to the stress of everything. After a night in the maternity ward they were able to halt labor, but that meant bedrest.

I started chemo on May 17th at Siteman Cancer Center which consisted of 3, 3 week long cycles of BEP. The first week of every cycle meant 8-10 hour days and man, they were long! The other two weeks were just a short chemo treatment every tue.

On July 8th my Daughter Caitlin was born, and 5 days later I had my last chemo treatment.

I responded to chemo very well and and happy to say that I just passed 1 year from chemo and am still cancer free!

**UPDATE** On July 13th 2012, I passed the two year from treatment mark and my cat-scan from the week prior confirmed that I am indeed still cancer free!!!

Wanting to give back to the community that saved my life, I decided to start a team to ride in support of and to raise money for cancer research.

I am joining the fight against cancer by participating in the second-annual Pedal the Cause bike challenge. Pedal the Cause has the mission to provide funding for cancer research at Siteman Cancer Center and St. Louis Children's Hospital through their annual cycling challenge in hopes that the research funded by their event will ultimately lead to a cure for cancer.

Please help me in this journey to find a cure by donating to my ride. I have committed to raise $500 per teammate for cancer research and 100% of your donation will go to directly to this cause.

I plan to ride 25 miles on October 7th and I hope you will join me in this grass-roots effort to advance research and find a cure.

If you want to join me on my ride, just sign up here and join my team, or you can help by donating to my ride.

I look forward to seeing you at the finish line!

BrettFollow me on Facebook