First, survive. Next, take people on an adventure.

This coming July, I will be going on a 13 day adventure from Calgary down to SE Oregon to kayak the Owyhee River. The trip is organized by Mikey and Bonnie Lang, founders of Survive and Thrive Adventures Inc. Mikey has just finished treatment for Hodgkin's stage 3 Lymphoma, which manifested itself as a grapefruit-sized tumor in the middle of his chest. Interestingly enough, it was when a doctor asked Mikey if he was feeling itchy, that cancer became a possible diagnosis for the asthma-like symptoms he was suffering from.

Mikey and Bonnie are really positive and optimistic people, and they want to expose the struggles of young adults with cancer, so they are taking 7 other young adult cancer survivors kayaking for the first time. The challenge of kayaking in whitewater needs to be faced in the same way that cancer should be: with optimism and courage.

I'm really excited to photograph this journey, and just today I got a sweet new pelican case to keep my camera gear dry while kayaking down the river. I met up with Mikey and Bonnie today to take some photos, here they are: