Lance Armstrong’s Battle With Cancer
Lance Armstrong fought with cancer and won! Being a great cyclist did not exclude him from other challenges. Just as his cycling career was picking up speed and he was becoming more famous all over the world something disastrous happened! He could have simply let go and gave up the fight. And yet, Lance Armstrong chose to fight cancer!
In the year 1996, Lance won the World Cycling Championships and became the first cyclist ever to win with the widest margin the United States National Race Championship. He also signed a contract with a French team for a very big amount of money. And yet, when the time came for him to ride his bike again for the Tour De France, he was diagnosed with advanced stage testicular cancer. To make things worse, the cancer cells had spread to his brain and to his lungs. He needed an urgent operation to remove his swollen testicle, is which had grown to the size of good-sized orange! Doctors told him he only had 50% chance of survival.
Lance Armstrong showed the world that you have to be strong and you have to fight for your life. That is why, he did not give up. Even if the doctors were pessimistic about his recovery, he never kept his fighting spirit up. Such fighting spirit was developed in his mind since childhood and that is why he did not give up easily. By using his athletic spirit, he simply considered cancer as another challenge that could be overcome by a great spirit and an optimistic outlook in life.
He lost a lot of weight in the process of the operation and chemotherapy. He could not even ride his bike around the neighborhood. But he learned to be spiritual as a result of his battle with cancer!
After his chemotherapy treatment, he was declared cancer-free! He had a new lease in life. He went back to his passion–riding his bike! The weight he lost actually helped him in his biking career because he became more capable in going through scale stage races! Something was truly different as he went through the Blue Rider Mountains training trails. Finally, after fighting with cancer, he was ready to fight for the races!
When he finally competed for the Tour De France, he breezed through it and won the yellow jersey. More than that, he competed in the next Tours to win a total of seven races consecutively!
Lance Armstrong’s bout with cancer became an inspiration among so many people around the world! They know that they, too, can succeed against the dreaded disease through medicine, training and optimism!